Following their impressive performance in Imola, McLaren once again made their presence felt in Monaco, with Oscar Piastri securing the second podium spot. The Australian driver attempted to overtake Leclerc, but soon realized that the second place was the best he could achieve.
“I’m extremely pleased. Yes, the third podium in F1 never gets old. I’m thrilled to be here in Monaco, especially because, you know, if there’s one podium you want to stand on besides your home podium, it’s probably here. So, I’m very, very happy for the entire team. I think especially for our side of the garage, it’s been a few promising weekends and it’s nice to finally get a good result out of it. So very, very happy,” responded the McLaren driver when asked if he enjoyed every podium.
Slow Pace
Regarding his battle with the eventual winner, Charles Leclerc, the teammate of Lando Norris had this to say: “I tried it after about 10 or 15 laps, in turn 8. We were going quite slow. I think at one point we were going slower than Formula 2. You know, when you’re going that slow, you have quite a few options. But I knew that once I had shown where I would try to overtake, he would have it figured out from that point on. So I managed to get very close in turn 7, one lap. I tried to show my nose in turn 8, but he reacted just quickly enough, so after that I knew my options would be very limited.”
Collision with Sainz
The Australian’s car made contact with Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari in the first lap of the race. As a result, Piastri had to continue the rest of the race with damage to his floor. Despite this, the 23-year-old Australian is satisfied with his second place.
“It went well. I think it was impossible to tell what the damage was for the first half of the race. Towards the end, I think it was probably a combination of trying to keep the race pace reasonably high, plus the floor, yes, I was struggling a bit towards the end, but overall I was quite satisfied. The last 10 laps or so, I was quite glad we were in Monaco,” said a always calm Piastri.
