It could easily have been Monte Carlo and bust for Oscar Piastri as he had a career-high number of brushes with the barriers on F1’s most famous street circuit before being relieved to finish third in qualifying for the sport’s showpiece Monaco Grand Prix.
Instead, while the championship leader diced with danger, it was McLaren teammate Lando Norris who came out top in a thrilling qualifying contest on Saturday, setting a lap record to edge out hometown hero, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, for pole.
In a terrific final Q3 shootout, Piastri had seconds earlier also broken the record in 1 minute 10.129 seconds, only for Leclerc, who had topped all three practice sessions, to then clock 1:10.063 and Norris a dazzling 1:09.954.
Ultimately, Piastri, who holds a 13-point lead over Norris in the championship, reckoned he was happy with his “decent” third position after a bit of a struggle during practice and qualifying as he admitted: “I mean, I think I’ve hit more walls this weekend than I have in my whole career, so it’s been a bit untidy.”
Piastri had crashed during second practice on Friday and felt he’d clipped a wall in Q1 before a heftier tap with his left-rear tyre at La Rascasse in Q2.
“It was intense, as it always is round here. Just been struggling to get into the groove a bit, but in qualifying, I was much happier with things, and I felt pretty good,” shrugged the ever unflappable Australian.
“It’s quite reminiscent of last year to be honest. My first lap (in Q3) felt good, and then the second lap, I made a mistake in in the harbour chicane, and left a little bit on there.
“To beat Lando was going to be tough, so well done to him. But still pretty happy with it overall. It’s been a pretty messy weekend so far, so to come out with a lap that I thought was pretty good and third is a decent result.
“But we’ve been doing some digging this weekend, and to come out with this result is a decent effort.”
Qualifying well is a priority on a circuit that’s so difficult to overtake on, but with a mandatory two-pit-stop rule in operation to liven up the sport’s most celebrated race, Piastri thinks anything’s possible.
“We’re in good positions, obviously, but it’s still going to be an exciting race tomorrow with the two stops. Let’s see what happens,” he shrugged.
Norris, after a 12th pole position and second this season, ended a spell where he’s been a bit down on confidence, saying: “It’s been a long time coming, I don’t think you realise how good this feels with quite a few struggles over the last couple of months, especially here in Monaco, the hardest track probably to do it.”
Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton was fourth, having clipped the wall by the casino late in Q3 while Red Bull’s champion Max Verstappen will start fifth on the grid alongside Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar.
But Mercedes’ George Russell came to a stop in the tunnel with an apparent electrical problem to red flag Q2 and placed only 14th.
