Barring the first practice session, Oscar Piastri was nowhere near topping the timing charts. That is why it came as a surprise when he landed on the front for the Monaco GP with a gap of just 0.154 seconds to pole-sitter Charles Leclerc. However, the Australian driver is himself not as surprised, given McLaren’s recent performances. In fact, he blames himself for missing out on the pole position.
Speaking during the post-qualifying interview, he said, “I think if you took the second half of my first lap in Q3 and the first half of my second one, it would have been enough. A couple of mistakes at the end, but credit to Charles. He’s been quick all weekend and at certain points, I thought we were going to get close to him.”
️| oscar piastri’s post qualifying interview in Monaco!
: “What better colours to do it in than these”
— Piastri Updates (@PiastriNews) May 25, 2024
Piastri then further talked about the difficulty in overtaking on the Monaco track. That would add an extra hurdle in his effort to beat Leclerc to the race victory.
The reason why Monaco is infamous for being boring on race day is its narrow track. With cars becoming increasingly bigger, overtaking has become a lot harder on the iconic circuit. This makes qualifying all the more important in Monaco. On most occasions, the driver in pole position goes on to win the race.
That is the case until they lose position to either an undercut or a bad pit stop. With things depending so much on luck, Oscar Piastri might as well rule this one as a missed opportunity. But given Charles Leclerc’s track record on his home circuit, the Aussie might have a fair chance at winning.
Is Charles Leclerc’s Monaco curse the opening Oscar Piastri needs?
Charles Leclerc landed the pole position in Monaco in both 2022 and 2021. However, on each occasion, the race win remained elusive. The bout of bad luck resulted in the home fixture turning into what fans popularized as Leclerc’s Monaco curse.
In 2022, the pole sitter fell prey to a botched strategy call that cost him the race win. Ferrari strategists called Leclerc in for a tire change but asked him to stay out once he was in the pit entry. The incident led to the exchange of some unsavory words on the radio.
In 2021, the Monegasque suffered a driveshaft failure while moving from the garage to the grid for the race start. That sent his car out of control resulting in a crash in the barriers. As a result, Leclerc could not even start the race.
If the ‘curse’ continues on Sunday, Oscar Piastri can have a fair shot at a race win. That, of course, would be the case if he fails to overtake the pole-sitter in the first corner. Any other chance would be hard to come by.
