F1 championship leader Oscar Piastri says qualifying third for the Monaco Grand Prix grid is a “decent effort” after a challenging weekend of scraping walls with his McLaren.
The Australian will start behind teammate Lando Norris, who is on pole position, for a race where overtaking has always been difficult but where a second mandatory pit stop could shake things up.
Ferrari’s defending champion Charles Leclerc is second on the grid.
“I think I’ve hit more walls this weekend than I have in my whole career, so it’s been untidy,” Piastri said of his form in practice and qualifying.
“Just been struggling to get into the groove a bit. I think in qualifying I was much happier with things and I felt pretty good … to come out with this result is a decent effort.”
Piastri, 24, has won four of seven races so far and is 13 points ahead of Norris, his closest title rival who beat him at Imola last weekend.
The Australian finished second last year in Monaco.
“I think at a track like this when you’ve had a messy build-up, you’re always going to leave a little bit on the table,” said Piastri, who added he had been struggling with his car’s balance.
“I’ve just been struggling to repeat the feeling I had last year through practice really.
“I think just gaining confidence in the car from yesterday has been a good step forward today.
“I think naturally when the grip comes up, you take more fuel out, you enter qualifying, everything starts to naturally feel a little bit better as well.
“The team did a good job. We certainly didn’t go into qualifying with a lack of trying.”
Norris’s pole was McLaren’s first in the principality since 2007.
“It means a lot,” Norris said.
“Not just because it’s been a while since I’ve been here, but just because of how things have been, how things have gone over the last couple of months, in qualifying.”
Reuters
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