Norris: I was faster than Verstappen in the rain

In Monaco, Lando Norris finished ninth and his team-mate, Oscar Piastri, tenth, and it is unlikely that the McLaren drivers would do better today. However, Lando noted that he was not happy with the pace on the slicks.

Lando Norris (9th): “Towards the end of the race, when I was running on intermediate tyres, I was told that my pace was the best at the time. I think I even went faster than the track conditions allowed, and I was even faster than Max Verstappen. And I wanted to show him the blue flags, I was really hoping I could catch up with him because that would have pissed him off. And I would be very happy, because it would be funny! (laughs)

But he was leading the Monaco Grand Prix, so he shouldn’t have interfered too much. But we showed really good pace and I think we only made one mistake when we switched to hard tyres, because after two laps we had to go back to the pits for intermediate ones. We just didn’t expect it to rain so hard.

The team told me it would just drizzle a little and stop soon, so I pitted for fresh slicks. It was probably necessary to wait a few more laps and monitor developments. We probably lost 30 seconds because of this, but we could at least move up two, if not three positions.

But on the dry track we were very slow, the pace was shockingly bad. Yuki Tsunoda on AlphaTauri was faster than us! So some of the distance we drove on slicks didn’t improve our mood, but when we switched to intermediate rubber, it all depended not on the car, but on how much you were willing to take risks.

Oscar Pistri (10th): “I am very happy with how the day went. Having started from 11th position, we were able to break into the top ten – I think it’s not bad for Monaco. We had a great race, starting on hard tyres, then we switched to intermediates in time and acted very clearly. So I’m happy to have earned a point in my first Monaco Grand Prix.

Of course we will have to analyze everything to see if we could have done better, but it feels like we did a good job and I’m really happy for the team as both McLaren cars finished in the top ten.

Andrew Stella, team leader: “Both of our cars are in the top ten and this is a very positive result, even though the Monaco Grand Prix was very dramatic. But the team worked well together, Lando and Oskar led the race skillfully, avoiding difficulties in difficult weather conditions and showing excellent pace on the intermediate tires in the last third of the distance.

It’s a pity that this part of the race didn’t last a bit longer, because then we could have made more use of the pace that both riders showed. But most of all I want to thank the team that worked in the McLaren pits this weekend.

Yesterday the mechanics worked phenomenally fast, allowing Lando to get back on track in the final of qualifying, and today they made very precise pit stops despite the turmoil associated with difficult weather conditions.