Despite securing a ninth place finish at the Monaco Grand Prix, Lando Norris was left rueing a missed chance as McLaren F1 Team’s call to pit the British driver for a new set of slick tyres would come undone just four laps later. Due to the sudden downfall of rain around the Circuit de Monaco, McLaren were forced to call Norris back into the pits for the intermediate tyres but the twenty three year old driver was still able to salvage a comfortable points finish.
Norris revealed that McLaren’s premature decision to move onto the hard compound of tyre cost him around twenty seconds but due to the ensuing chaos occurring around the Circuit de Monaco because of the rainfall, Norris would eventually return to his original place before his first stop, as he made his way past his teammate on lap fifty eight.
“That was a pretty good race”, Norris exclaimed. “Perhaps not perfect, we stopped just before the rain which lost us about 20s of race time having to pit again for the Inters because the rain was stronger than expected, but unfortunately the stint wasn’t long enough to make the most of the good pace we then had.”
The McLaren driver would move up to ninth place with ten laps remaining as Yuki Tsunoda struggled with a brake issue towards the back end of the race. Norris executed his move on the struggling Japanese driver into Sainte Devote to claim his third points finish of the 2023 FIA Formula One World Championship.
Norris’ attention now swiftly turns to next weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, where the British driver will be looking build upon the MCL60’s strong race pace on shown in Monaco in a bid to claim another positive result for the Woking-based team.
“It was very tough out there today, tricky in these conditions. Our pace was good, one of the best on track. We’ll see what we can learn, try to keep improving and do a better job if we can in Barcelona next weekend.”
Oscar Piastri: “It feels like we did a good job”
Oscar Piastri was left delighted after he was able to claim a late points finish in his first ever experience of a Monaco Grand Prix weekend in Formula 1.
Piastri, like his teammate, was able to hold onto his qualifying position of eleventh place throughout his first stint of the race. However, unlike Norris, McLaren didn’t opt to bring the Australian in for his second stint before the downpour of rain around the streets of Monte-Carlo.
Shortly after pitting onto the intermediate tyre, Piastri would lose out on the advantage he held over Norris as the British driver adapted to the wetter conditions at a quicker rate and made his way past his rookie teammate.
Piastri would eventually make his way back into the points after Tsunoda’s race unraveled due to issues with the brakes on his AT04. Just a lap after Norris overtook the Japanese driver, Piastri recreated an almost identical move heading into Sainte Devote to secure a finish inside the points.
“I’m pretty happy with P10 and a point today”, Piastri stated. “There’s not a great deal you can do in Monaco on Sunday but I think we made a good strategy call to start on the Hard tyre.”
“When the rain began to fall, the communications were very good as we decided if and when to go onto the Intermediate tyre. Of course, we’ll have a look to see if there was anything we could have done better today, but it feels like we did a good job, and I’m very happy that both of us finished the race in the points.”
