Piastri third in Monaco as Norris inches closer in title fight

It was a strong day for McLaren in Monaco, with Lando Norris taking a milestone victory and Oscar Piastri joining him on the podium — but for the Australian, a solid third place came with quiet frustration as his teammate cut the championship lead to just three points.

Claiming his second podium finish around the iconic streets of Monte Carlo, Oscar Piastri ended his Sunday at the Monaco Grand Prix as he started with a solid third-place finish.

Piastri shared the podium with Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc, spraying champagne alongside his teammate whose dream victory closed their gap in the Drivers’ Championship to just three points ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix this weekend.

Despite taking a hit in the WDC standings, it was an expected loss for the Australian who struggled to find his groove all weekend, including an uncharacteristic crash at Sainte Devote during practice.

“Obviously, the win would have been better, but it’s been a bit of a tricky weekend,” Piastri said.

“Practice was messy all the way through, and I felt like I got into qualifying with not a lot of confidence with how the weekend was going. 

“I got close, but not quite close enough. 

“And, you know, around here, where you qualify is pretty much where you’re going to finish, so, pretty happy with that overall. 

“Obviously, some things to look out for when we come back next year, but some more points on the board, another trip to the podium in Monaco, so not all bad.”

The race start saw Piastri working to neutralise a threat from Max Verstappen into the first braking zone, successfully managing to do so as he followed the #16 Ferrari up the hill to the casino.

With overtaking rarely possible around the Circuit de Monaco, Piastri was forced to settle into P3, losing touch with the leaders as he lapped two seconds per lap slower than Norris out in front.

On Lap 10, the closing Dutchman in Piastri’s mirrors was growing tired of his view of the rear of the #81 McLaren and decided to formulate an attack out of the Turn 10 chicane, however, a well-positioned Piastri didn’t let that slide under double yellows, slamming the door shut into Tabac.

Verstappen felt wronged by the Australian’s defensive efforts, complaining over the radio: “He would’ve taken my front wing off, he didn’t leave space. What is that? We would’ve crashed! I had a right to be there.”

Piastri later addressed the incident in the cooldown room, telling Norris and Leclerc, “He tried to pass me twice [when there were] yellows.”

On Lap 20, the Australian made his first of two mandatory pitstops when his race engineer, Tom Stallard, instructed Piastri to “box to overtake Leclerc”.

A slow 3.7-second pitstop didn’t do the #81 any favours though, with Piastri rejoining in P4 with the task of completing a high-speed outlap the focus to salvage an undercut on Leclerc.

Their strategy didn’t work when the Ferrari driver boxed and rejoined ahead of Piastri shortly after, leaving him to question what the plan was from there on out after their first option “didn’t work very well”.

“I don’t think [a quicker pitstop would have allowed us to overtake Leclerc]. We were too far back,” Piastri admitted. 

“I think we tried to make something happen, but I don’t think it was ever going to change our result.”

From there, it was a stagnant race spent building pitstop margins for his teammate through to Piastri’s second stop on Lap 48, with the only heart-raising moment coming four laps prior when the 24-year-old slid into the barrier at Sainte Devote, with his left rear wheel kissing the wall and costing him 0.29s on the road, however, thankfully nothing more. 

He pulled into the pitlane as instructed, ticking off the required second stop during the race and rejoining in P4 once again, armed with the hard compound tyres as he worked to close the gap to Leclerc ahead.

Sharing his thoughts on the mandatory two stops, Piastri said that they “definitely made it a bit more tense at a few points”.

“You had to push more at certain points to kind of recover the safety car windows to other cars around you or put yourself outside of someone else’s safety car window,” the McLaren driver explained. 

“So there were some strategic elements involved, but ultimately, at the front, I don’t think it changed a whole lot. 

“It would have been quite a different story if there was a Red Flag with five laps to go and Max would have won. 

“I’m sure if we keep this going in the future, eventually a result like that will happen. 

“Is that what we want to see? I don’t know. 

“But at the front, I don’t think it changed a huge amount this weekend.”

It took the Australian the next 20-odd laps to make his way up the rear wing of the hometown hero, joining the frustrated queue headed by Max Verstappen on Lap 73. 

There was no way around Leclerc though, leaving the leading quartet counting down the lacklustre final laps as the Dutchman out in front praying for a late-race Red Flag.

It never arrived, meaning Verstappen had to relinquish the lead to Norris on the second last lap to avoid disqualification, promoting the Australian back into the podium positions with just 3.3km to go.

He took the chequered flag a painful five-tenths behind Leclerc, taking the positives from a race that earned him 15 points towards his 2025 championship campaign.

“The margins are so fine and, like you said, if this is a bad weekend, then it’s not going too badly at all,” Piastri said.

“So, yeah, some things to work on. 

“We’ll go again next week and try and come back stronger. 

“But well done to Lando — he’s had a great weekend.

“Well done to Charles as well — he’s been quick as usual. 

“So, yeah, happy, and see you on the podium!”

Ticking off the crown jewel of the season, the Formula 1 grid will head to Barcelona this weekend for the final race of the triple-header — the final Spanish Grand Prix being hosted at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya — before jumping ship to the newly developed Madring from 2026.

The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is a familiar battleground for every driver and team, with Piastri’s two previous Formula 1 outings in Spain rewarding him with a P7 and P13 finish during his first two seasons with McLaren. 

A major change will come at Round 9, however, with a new technical directive coming into play that will ban any kind of wing flexing – having potentially huge ramifications on the pecking order for the rest of the season.

With Free Practice 1 kicking off at 21:30 AEST on Friday, May 30, the Australian will hope to put a complete weekend together to return to the top step come the chequered flag on Sunday.

Image: Clive Rose/Getty Images.

Buy the new issue of Auto Action Premium HERE

Read the new issue of Auto Action Digital HERE

Don’t forget the print edition of Auto Action available via subscription here or you can purchase a copy of the latest issue from one of our outlets here. For more of the latest motorsport news, subscribe to AUTO ACTION magazine