Piastri learns lessons en route to late points
Monday, 29 May 2023
Laps spent in the rain behind race-winner Max Verstappen help Oscar Piastri's late charge to the points in Monte Carlo, the McLaren driver scoring for the second time this season.
Oscar Piastri admitted to being "tired" after an "enjoyable" first Monaco Grand Prix, the Australian's late-race pass of AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda securing 10th place and a second points finish of his rookie season for McLaren on Sunday.
Piastri finished behind teammate Lando Norris on Sunday after qualifying behind him on Saturday, the 2021 Monaco podium finisher edging the F1® rookie by just two-hundredths of a second in Q1 to leave Piastri in 11th on the grid.
Piastri spent the first two-thirds of a "quite slow" race in that same 11th place, but late rain offered an opportunity to add to his maiden world championship points earned in Melbourne last month, and he capitalised to move up to 13th place in the drivers' championship after six races.
"I'm tired, it was a pretty eventful first Monaco Grand Prix," Piastri said.
"(There was) a lot of concentration needed. In the first half of the race everyone goes quite slow, just managing the tyres ... in these cars overtaking is literally impossible, so you've just got to try to manage something with the strategy. That part of the race was simple enough, but once it rained that was pretty spicy in a few places.
"It's nice to have my first time in an F1 car on slicks in the rain around Monaco done … (I was) thrown in at the deep end, that's for sure."
Piastri started on hard tyres while Norris began his race on mediums, McLaren splitting the strategies of its two drivers, and Piastri made his sole pit stop for intermediates on lap 54 as rain turned the famed street circuit into a high-speed skating rink. With race leader (and eventual winner) Max Verstappen ahead of him on track, Piastri used the real-time reference of the reigning world champion to his advantage.
"From Turn 5 to Turn 8, those corners were really tricky," he said.
"I was actually quite happy that I had Max right in front of me because I thought 'if there's anyone who's got some experience in this ... he's leading the race, so he's probably going to be a good reference'. I was trying to go a little bit quicker than him, but not a lot quicker than him."
With Tsunoda fading with brake issues and lack of grip in the wet as the laps counted down, Piastri made his move at Turn 1 with 10 laps left, admitting he initially felt he may have bitten off more than he could chew.
"On the inters, Yuki seemed to be really struggling, the pace deficit was massive," he said.
"DRS was a very welcome surprise on that straight, so I managed to go around the outside. I thought I'd out-braked myself and thrown it all away when I locked the right front (tyre) – the wall comes very quickly at you when you've got three wheels doing braking, not four. But I managed to make it stick, and from there consolidated the 10th place."
Oscar's Monaco Grand Prix by the numbers
- Qualified: 11th
- Race: 10th
- Pit stops/tyres: Lap 54 (hard/intermediate)
- Fastest lap: 1min 17.513secs (14th), lap 47
- Points this event: 1
- Points this season: 5 (13th in world championship)
