Oscar Piastri chases fifth win of season for McLaren; F1 results, schedule, Monte Carlo, tickets, map, track; Formula 1; Ferrari; Max Verstappen; Lando Norris; Lewis Hamilton; Charles Leclerc

It could easily have been Monte Carlo and bust for Oscar Piastri as he had a career-high number of brushes with the barriers on F1’s most famous street circuit before ultimately feeling relieved to finish third in qualifying for the sport’s showpiece Monaco Grand Prix.

Instead, while the championship leader diced with danger, it was McLaren teammate Lando Norris who came out top in a thrilling qualifying contest on Saturday, setting a lap record to edge out hometown hero, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, for pole.

In a terrific final Q3 shootout, Piastri had seconds earlier also broken the record in 1 minute 10.129 seconds, only for Leclerc, who had topped all three practice sessions, to then clock 1:10.063 and Norris a dazzling 1:09.954.

Ultimately, Piastri, who holds a 13-point lead over Norris in the championship, said he was happy with his “decent” third position after a bit of a struggle during practice and qualifying.

“I mean, I think I’ve hit more walls this weekend than I have in my whole career, so it’s been a bit untidy,” he admitted.

Piastri had crashed during second practice on Friday and felt he’d clipped a wall in Q1 before a heftier tap with his left-rear tyre at La Rascasse in Q2.

“It was intense, as it always is round here. Just been struggling to get into the groove a bit, but in qualifying, I was much happier with things, and I felt pretty good,” shrugged the ever unflappable Australian.

“It’s quite reminiscent of last year to be honest. My first lap [in Q3] felt good, and then the second lap, I made a mistake in in the harbour chicane, and left a little bit on there.

“To beat Lando was going to be tough, so well done to him, but [I’m] still pretty happy with it overall. It’s been a pretty messy weekend so far, so to come out with a lap that I thought was pretty good, and third, is a decent result.

“But we’ve been doing some digging this weekend, and to come out with this result is a decent effort.”

Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton will start tonight’s race from seventh place after being handed a three-place grid drop for impeding Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who’ll start fourth.

Hamilton had an eventful afternoon, also clipping the wall by the casino late in Q3 but his old Mercedes’ teammate George Russell had a worse afternoon, coming to a stop in the tunnel with an apparent electrical problem to red flag Q2, placing him only 14th.

AAP