Oscar Piastri qualified third for the Monaco GP, and that’s exactly the position in which he finished the race today. As always said, qualifying in Monte Carlo is the most important part of the weekend.
Even though he would have preferred to win, this “bad weekend” of his wasn’t that bad after all. In addition to all the points he brought to the team, he managed to return to the podium in Monaco, the most coveted race on the calendar.
Everything went according to his expectations, and according to him, the two mandatory stops didn’t really change the situation at the front. Behind them, the race was much livelier with several battles and strategic variations, but to alter the situation at the front a red flag would have been needed—and it never came.
All in all, despite a less than ideal start to the weekend, the result the Australian achieved is a very good one.
Piastri’s words after the race
Oscar Piastri already had a clear idea of how the Monaco GP would go. Everything depended on qualifying, which wasn’t his strongest.
The Australian said: “You know, after qualifying, I already knew that’s probably how we’d end up. So that’s all I can ask for, really. We gained some experience that will be useful for when we come back here next year. But all in all, it’s not a bad weekend for me. In terms of points and, you know, being on the podium in Monaco is really special. So, I’ll take that result.”
“I’d say it went exactly as I expected. I think there was quite a bit of action behind me, so maybe it was a bit different there, but from where I was, everything went pretty much how I imagined.” – added driver no.81 – “The race pace definitely increased, especially compared to last year. So, from inside the cockpit, it was a bit more intense. Obviously, we weren’t pushing flat out, but it made some parts of the race a bit more tense.”
On Friday and Saturday, Oscar Piastri wasn’t entirely happy with his McLaren, while today he felt quite comfortable in it.
“I mean, everything felt okay, but you can’t really push the car to its limit in the race. I was quite happy with the car in qualifying, so I think we got to a good place in the end. My struggle was more about getting into rhythm before qualifying. And on these streets, you pay the price if you don’t get a good lap in qualifying,” explained the Australian.
“So I think that’s where our weekend slipped away a bit, but I believe the pace was still good. Yesterday it was tough to get everything out of the car in each flying lap. And today we tried a couple of things to move up a bit from third place, but it didn’t work.”
The two mandatory stops
With the new rule of two mandatory pit stops in Monaco, a somewhat controversial situation emerged. Many drivers complained that some teams used unethical strategies to achieve a good result, while others didn’t see any real change in the race despite the new rule.
Piastri said: “It definitely made the race a bit more tense. At some points, we had to push more to regain the Safety Car window from the cars around us or get out of another driver’s Safety Car window. So there were strategic elements we used, yes, but I think at the front it didn’t really change much.”
“It would have been a completely different story if there had been a red flag five laps from the end and Max Verstappen had won. So I think if we keep this rule in the future, at some point something like that will happen—and is that what we want to see? I don’t know. But again, I don’t think it really changed much at the front,” concluded the 24-year-old.
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