Oscar Piastri creates history with third-placed finish at Monaco Grand Prix
Oscar Piastri survived two close shaves with the crash barriers to finish third at the Monaco Grand Prix and retain the Formula One series lead while also chalking up an impressive milestone.
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Oscar Piastri survived two close shaves with the crash barriers to finish third at the Monaco Grand Prix, chalking up another impressive Formula One milestone while hanging on to his diminishing lead in the championship standings.
The Australian twice flirted with disaster during Sunday night’s 78-lap race on the unforgiving narrow roads of Monte Carlo, first when he slid his left rear wheel into a guard rail then again when he clipped a steel wall with his front right tyre.
Fortunate not to cause any damage to his McLaren car, the ice cool Aussie kept his foot planted on the throttle without missing a beat to secure himself a second successive trip to the most prestigious podium in motor sport after finishing runner-up 12 months ago.
His lead in the drivers’ championship was trimmed from 13 to just three points when his British teammate and main title rival Lando Norris won the race ahead of Charles Leclerc.
But by holding on for third, Piastri not only retained the series lead but also became the first Australian driver in F1 history to register seven consecutive top-three finishes after finishing third at Imola a week ago.
“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.”
Max Verstappen, the only other realistic challenger to Piastri and Norris for this year’s drivers’ championship, slipped 25 points behind the leader after finishing fourth in his Red Bull.
The Dutch master tried unsuccessfully to exploit a new rule requiring drivers to use three sets of tyres during the race by delaying his second mandatory pit stop after everyone else had gone back in for fresh rubber.
Hoping for a red flag that never eventuated, Verstappen held out until the penultimate lap before pitting and surrendering the lead to Norris, who sped away to an emotional victory.
“Seeing the chequered flag and winning in Monaco is something I dreamed of when I was a kid.” Norris said.
“There are many things that I think everyone dreams of – it’s getting to Formula One, winning a race in Formula One, and winning a race in Monaco. And we achieved it today.”
Despite the failed attempt by F1 officials to add some extra interest to the race at the picturesque but notoriously tight street circuit where overtaking is virtually impossible, the top four drivers from qualifying still all finished in the exact same order they started, as is typically the case at the French Riviera, the playground of the rich and famous.
Piastri was just 3.6 seconds behind when the chequered flag was waved, but he never looked like passing either Leclerc or Norris, who claimed the sport’s jewel in the crown after starting from pole position.
“Around here, where you qualify is pretty much where you’re going to finish so pretty happy with that overall,” Piastri said.
“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.”
With a third of the 24-round F1 calendar completed, McLaren’s lead in the constructors’ championship has ballooned out to 172 points, leaving its two drivers to battle out the individual title, which now seems likely to go down to the wire, with the next race in Barcelona in seven days’ time.
Norris is a little older but a lot more experienced than the 24-year-old Piastri, who is bidding to join Jack Brabham (1959, 1960, 1966) and Alan Jones (1980) as the only Australians to win the world championship.
Still in just his third season in F1, Piastri has already shown he is fast but his greatest strength is his calmness behind the wheel and ultra consistency.
He’s claimed points in each of the 34 most recent race weekends, dating back to 2023.
And of the eight rounds so far in 2025, Piastri has won four times and finished third on three occasions.
The only time he missed the podium was when he spun in heavy rain during the season-opening Australian Grand Prix and finished ninth.
No Australian has ever made it on the podium as many times in a row as Piastri has, with Brabham, Jones and Daniel Ricciardo’s longest streaks all stopping at five.
“The margins are so fine. If this is a bad weekend, then it’s not going too badly at all,” Piastri said.
“Some things to work on. We’ll go again next week and try and come back stronger.
“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.”
Norris started the year as the favourite for the drivers’ title after winning the season-opening race in Australia from pole but has struggled to reproduce that form since.
His critics, including Alan Jones, have publicly questioned his mental toughness but Norris said he’s never stopped believing in himself and that he can become an even better driver.
“People can write what they want,” Norris said.
“People have their own opinions, they can do all of those things. Thing is, none of them are true, 99% of the time. So, it’s all crap.
“I’ve been working hard over the last few months to get back to having that momentum that I had in Australia, that confidence.
“What I felt this weekend was a small step forward, but it’s not it. It’s not like I’ve nailed it now and everything’s back. There are still things that I need to work on.”
In firing back at his detractors, Norris said he was more proud of being able to rediscover his groove during qualifying than the actual race itself because that’s when the pressure is at its most intense.
“I’ve had to work hard to try and get it back,” he said.
“For no other reason apart from a couple of things that I’ve clearly struggled with and also just having tough competition. Having Oscar, Charles, Max, I’m against the best guys in the world.
“And if you’re not performing at the highest level, you’re not going to compete against them. No one knows the amount of work and effort that goes into things apart from me and my team. And that’s the only people who need to know.
Originally published as Oscar Piastri creates history with third-placed finish at Monaco Grand Prix
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