Oscar Piastri: McLaren has pace for F1 Monaco GP despite “very messy” Friday

Formula 1 championship leader Oscar Piastri believes McLaren has the pace to compete for pole position at the Monaco Grand Prix – as long as it can recover from a “very messy” Friday.

Piastri escaped lasting damage after going straight into the tyre wall at Sainte Devote just 19 minutes into the second free practice session and recovered to set the second-fastest time.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc topped both of Friday’s sessions, however, with Piastri fifth in FP1 while team-mate Lando Norris was third and fourth in the sister McLaren.

The pace of Ferrari caught many by surprise, but Piastri feels McLaren can once again establish itself at the top of the order heading into the rest of the weekend.

“I think just the whole day has been a bit up and down, I think when we get everything together the pace is quite good,” the six-time grand prix winner said.

“It’s just not proving that easy to do at the moment, so some things to look at, I think especially for myself it’s been a very messy day, so yeah, try and reset a bit tomorrow, because I think the pace in the car is there.

“I think clearly Ferrari are looking a lot stronger here than they have done, but I think for today it’s more just being on my side that’s been quite messy. Plenty of things to learn and I think tomorrow will be an interesting day.”

When Norris was pushed on the specifics of what could be holding the McLarens back slightly, he suggested a few little fixes is all that is required.

“It’s always good fun here, it’s always stressful, but yeah, good fun, just difficult to get some clean laps and things at times, but I think a nice feeling, felt comfortable from the beginning, but you need to progress more in some areas,” said Norris, who is second in the championship.

“It’s difficult to describe the things but we’re talking small things, like it’s not huge but when you’re talking about hundreds here and there, it’s a lot of small things that add up.

“But it’s too difficult to get the braking right, to get the cornering right, to get the tyres, the grip, the feeling all in like the perfect window, so it’s, I know there isn’t one answer for the question there, it’s many different things.”