McLaren’s Oscar Piastri admitted to struggling on the streets of Monaco in qualifying for the grand prix, having put his car in third position for tomorrow’s Formula 1 race after appearing to clip the wall at almost every turn on the streets of the Principality.
The Australian’s weekend got off to a slow start yesterday when he hit the barriers head on at Sainte Devote in Monaco. Since then, his collisions with the circuit’s walls have gotten less serious, but continued to plague almost every session Piastri ran in.
Oscar Piastri, McLaren
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
This continued in qualifying and Piastri clipped the barriers again multiple times, leading the McLaren driver to ask his team to check the car several times over team radio.
After the session, the current championship leader admitted that it capped off a “messy” weekend for him.
“I think I’ve hit more walls this weekend than I have in my whole career, so it’s been untidy,” the McLaren driver told Sky TV after qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix.
“Yeah, 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. But, yeah, we’ve been doing some digging this weekend, and to come out with this result is a decent effort.”
Piastri will line up for tomorrow’s race in third, behind hometown hero Charles Leclerc and team-mate Lando Norris, who took pole position in the principality.
The result marks just the third time this season that Piastri has failed to make the front row in qualifying.
“I think to beat Lando today was going to be tough, so well done, well done to him,” Piastri said.
“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.”
Piastri will be hoping that Monaco’s new two-stop rule will help him move through the pack in tomorrow’s grand prix, as overtaking has historically been difficult on the streets of Monte Carlo.
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