Oscar Piastri thought Lando Norris had gone “hard” into the wall at Turn 1 as the polesitter locked up trying to keep Charles Leclerc at bay on the opening lap of the Monaco Grand Prix.

Lining up first and third in Monaco with Norris ahead of Piastri, the McLaren team-mates had Ferrari’s Leclerc in the middle of their papaya sandwich.

Oscar Piastri: I saw smoke everywhere…

The leading trio all began the race on the medium Pirelli tyres in a mandatory two-stop race.

Norris got a good launch off the line, but Leclerc was able to close in on him on the run to Turn 1, with Norris locking up his tyres as he did everything he could to hold onto the lead.

Seeing little but smoke in the moment, Piastri feared his team-mate’s race had ended in a crash.

It did not, Norris staying P1 ahead of Leclerc and Piastri, the trio crossing the line in the same positions in which they completed Turn 1 on Lap 1.

Speaking with Norris and Leclerc in the post-race cooldown room, Piastri voiced his early concerns about his team-mate’s race.

F1 2025: McLaren team-mate head-to-head stats

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

“Mate, I thought you were in the wall hard at Turn 1,” Piastri said. “I saw smoke everywhere and was like: ‘Oh my god, no!’”

Leclerc also thought Norris was going to bin it.

That wasn’t the only time that Leclerc got close to Norris, chasing him down in the closing laps with Max Verstappen, yet to pit for the second time, bunching up the field.

Asked about that, Norris questioned: “Did you ask Max?”
Reporter: “Yes.”
Norris: “What did he say?”
Reporter: “He said no, and that his tyres were just not there.”
Norris: “I have no idea. So that’s all I’ll say.”

Verstappen’s actions, deliberate or otherwise, did put late-race pressure on Norris as Leclerc ran within DRS range.

“The last quarter was a little bit nervous,” Norris said, “with Charles close behind and Max ahead, but we won in Monaco. So it doesn’t matter how you win, I guess.

“But an amazing weekend with pole, with today – this is what I dream of. This is what I did dream of when I was a kid. So, I achieved one of my dreams.”

Quizzed on whether a late-race red flag would’ve handed the victory to Verstappen, Norris said that was not something in his control so he didn’t worry about it.

“What can I do? Nothing,” he said. “It’s of my control. No real point thinking about it.

“If it happened, it happened. He wins Monaco, well done. Yeah.

“I was happy. I’m just focusing on my own race. Of course, praying that it didn’t happen, but I didn’t think of the rest.”

Norris’ victory in Monte Carlo meant he closed the gap to Piastri to just three points a third of the way into the F1 2025 championship race.

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