By Alan Baldwin
MONACO (Reuters) -Formula One championship-leader Oscar Piastri said qualifying third for Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix grid looked like a “decent effort” after a messy weekend of scraping walls with his McLaren.
The Australian will start behind teammate Lando Norris, on pole position, for a race where overtaking has always been difficult but where a second mandatory pitstop could shake things up.
“I think I’ve hit more walls this weekend than I have in my whole career, so it’s been untidy,” he said of his form in practice and qualifying.
“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… to come out with this result is a decent effort.”
Piastri, 24, has won four of seven races so far and is 13 points ahead of Norris, his closest title rival who beat him at Imola last weekend.
The Australian finished second last year in Monaco, behind Ferrari’s local hero Charles Leclerc.
“I think at a track like this when you’ve had a messy build-up, you’re always going to leave a little bit on the table,” said Piastri, who added he had been struggling with his car’s balance.
“I’ve just been struggling to repeat the feeling I had last year through practice really,” he added.
“I think just gaining confidence in the car from yesterday has been a good step forward today. I think naturally when the grip comes up, you take more fuel out, you enter qualifying, everything starts to naturally feel a little bit better as well.
“The team did a good job. We certainly didn’t go into qualifying with a lack of trying.”
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Christian Radnedge)
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