Charles Leclerc was frustrated his Canadian Grand Prix charge was made more difficult by a slow pitstop, but insists he can overturn his Formula 1 points deficit to Max Verstappen.

Leclerc started on the back row of the grid in Montreal after taking on new engine components due to his Ferrari power unit failure from Baku.

Despite making progress through the field, Leclerc found himself stuck behind Esteban Ocon’s Alpine, unable to find a way past even with the benefit of DRS.

To add to the Monegasque’s misery, a slow pitstop cost him crucial time and saw rejoin behind a train of cars – leaving him with more work to do.

Leclerc came home in fifth place having managed to overtake both Alpine’s after the safety car restart, but Verstappen’s victory means he now trails the Red Bull driver by 49 points in the drivers’ championship.

But while the outlook of the current standings looks bleak, Leclerc believes Ferrari has what it takes to claw back Verstappen’s points advantage.

“Yes, yes. I think reliability seems to be a concern for everyone this season,” Leclerc said when asked if he could catch Verstappen despite being almost two race wins behind, as quoted by Motorsport Week.

“If we fix our reliability the performance is there to come back so already from Silverstone we will try to get a few points back.”

Leclerc stressed difficulties with traffic meant he had to bide his time rather than take too many risks, but felt Ferrari’s overall pace was strong when running in clear air.

“I think unfortunately with the pit stop it put us a bit in a bad situation as we cleared the DRS train then got another DRS train and it cost me a bit at the end,” Leclerc said.

“Overall it was a race I had to be patient, at the beginning I was stuck in a DRS train then I was stuck behind Esteban who had new tyres and was very good at turn 10, whenever I had free air I think pace was really good but it’s like this.”