‘It got away from us’ - Oscar Piastri on Monaco GP as Lando Norris gains ground
“It was more just struggling to get into a rhythm before qualifying.”
Oscar Piastri blamed a lack of rhythm at the F1 Monaco Grand Prix as Lando Norris gained more ground in the title race.
Piastri could only finish third in Monaco on Sunday, 3.6s behind McLaren teammate Norris, who won the race.
The result means there are just three points between Piastri and Norris at the top of the drivers’ championship heading into this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix.
Unlike in many races this year, it was Piastri who was more uncomfortable behind the wheel of the MCL39.
After qualifying, Piastri described his weekend up to that point as “messy” as he lost out to Norris and Charles Leclerc.
Reflecting on the race in the FIA press conference, Piastri said: “Pretty much exactly how I expected. I think there was a lot of action behind, so maybe that was a bit different.
“But from where I was at, it panned out pretty much how I thought. It definitely made the pace of the race a bit higher, certainly compared to last year. So from the cockpit, it was a little bit more intense.
“We’re still not pushing flat out, but it just made certain points of the race a bit more tense.”
Piastri struggled with Monaco “rhythm”
In a bid to get ahead of Leclerc, McLaren stopped Piastri two laps earlier.
However, a slightly slow pit stop - and being too far behind the Ferrari driver in the first place - meant he wasn’t able to move up the order.
Piastri blamed a lack of rhythm going into qualifying.
“Everything felt okay, but you’re not really pushing it to the limit in the race,” Piastri added.
“I was pretty happy with it in qualifying. I think we got there eventually. It was more just struggling to get into a rhythm before qualifying. And around here, you pay the price for not having that clean run into quali.
“So that’s where I think our weekend got away from us a little bit. But the pace was still good, just trying to get everything out of it. Every single lap was tough yesterday. And today, we tried a few things to get higher than third, but it didn’t work.”
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