Among the narrow streets of the Principality, where the slightest distraction is not allowed, Oscar Piastri managed to take second place at the end of a long race, in which the twists and turns were concentrated in the first of the 78 scheduled laps.
As stated in the post-qualifying interviews, his objective was to make a good start: at the start, however, he must be careful of the attack of Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari, which started from the third spot on the starting grid. There is a contact between the two and the Australian’s car suffers some damage, while the SF-24 number 55 thanks the red flag caused by the accident triggered by Magnussen and which involved Perez and the other Haas to replace the tire perforated.
At the second start from the Grand Prix, which took place from the main straight, Piastri maintained his position without ever managing to have the right gap to overtake the host, leader for the entire race: “The race was complicated – declares the McLaren driver – the My pace was initially incredibly slow. There was only one moment when I was close enough to try to overtake Leclerc, but I never had the pace to really try.”
Despite this, he is equally satisfied with the result obtained: “I am very happy with the whole weekend and with the result we brought home. We were already strong in the last weekends, but until today there hadn’t been a result for me that demonstrated it. Today the podium finally arrived and there couldn’t have been a better place than Monte Carlo to get it.”
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24, Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL38, Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38, on the inaugural lap
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
“Overall it’s a positive weekend – he continues – perhaps I could have done something more in qualifying and I could have obtained a better placing. But Charles was exceptional all weekend, the Ferrari was very fast from the first lap, I really would have had to do something special in qualifying to be able to beat Leclerc.”
The McLaren driver, highlighting the team’s great progress in the final rounds of the season, nevertheless noted that he probably should have set “the best lap of his life”. For him, he concludes, “second place is an excellent result for the team and I am very happy”.
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