Tag: Oscar Piastri

McLaren expects its drivers to offer to help each other in title fights

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella expects Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to offer to help each other if one of them is involved in a close title fight in future. Norris was told to move over for Piastri in the final stint of the Hungarian Grand …

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella expects Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to offer to help each other if one of them is involved in a close title fight in future.

Norris was told to move over for Piastri in the final stint of the Hungarian Grand Prix, having inherited the lead by virtue of being allowed to make his second pit stop before his teammate. The powerful undercut ensured Norris didn’t come under threat in second place, but also jumped Piastri before giving the place back for the Australian’s first win.

After Norris — who is now 76 points behind Max Verstappen — admitted he was thinking about his title chances when debating whether to hold position or not, Stella says McLaren won’t allocate a number one or number two driver, but hopes the environment will lead both to offer to help the other if a serious championship fight develops.

“When you have Oscar and Lando, we are in the lucky enough position that we don’t really need to decide who is a number one driver,” Stella said. “Which is a way of simplifying things… and it’s a way to frustrate the entire team, the ambition and the way we go racing, which is deep in our ethos. We race fair and if one of the two drivers gains a result on merit, this is protected.

“Maybe if it’s the last couple of races and there’s a strong championship interest for one of the two drivers, we may revise this. But what I’m expecting is that the other driver is coming to me and saying, ‘If you need my help with the other driver because he is in the championship competition, I’m available.’ And I think you build this ethos if you manage days like [Sunday] in a fair way — like I think we have done.

“This may give a lot of material for rumors and media [focus]. That’s fair enough — that’s racing. To be honest, I enjoyed this week as a spectator, as a fan, when these things were happening even when I was not in Formula 1. But please acknowledge that we just did what was fair [in Budapest]. This is what I want the entire team of McLaren to realize, and hopefully our fans as well.”

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Despite Stella being confident in the way McLaren handled its approach to the one-two in the Hungaroring, he also says the result won’t stop the team trying to identify what it could have done better.

“I think that it would be arrogant that we take this very positive outcome and we don’t look at the opportunities to do better. But I would be a little careful in thinking, ‘Oh, we should have stopped in a different sequence, we should have stopped earlier,’ because there are some potential risks in doing so that we definitely wanted to exclude.

“At no point should the car — for instance, due to a pit stop problem — fall behind the traffic of [Lewis] Hamilton and Ferrari. So we needed to manage some of the problems and I didn’t want to put too much pressure on the pit crew. I’d rather take the pressure and resolve these things with the driver. We are the people that are most responsible in this team and I’d rather deal with that.

“Like we said after Silverstone, like we said after very positive outcomes, we do have to take every opportunity to improve. But in terms of the timing, we need to look back at the race and we do it like we always do, in a very calm way, applying our culture, and we’ll see where we could have done better.”

Piastri had no doubts Norris would give him the lead back

Oscar Piastri says his first victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix will take time to sink in, but he never doubted Lando Norris would give the lead back to him before the end of the race. The start of the race saw Piastri overtake Norris to lead, and …

Oscar Piastri says his first victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix will take time to sink in, but he never doubted Lando Norris would give the lead back to him before the end of the race.

The start of the race saw Piastri overtake Norris to lead, and he maintained that position until the final round of pit stops, when McLaren stopped Norris first and he undercut his teammate. Norris was then told to give the place back and did so with three laps remaining, for Piastri to secure his debut grand prix victory following his Qatar Sprint win last year.

“I would say it is [what I hoped it would be] — I don’t think it’s fully sunk in yet and I’m not really the kind of person to get overly emotional,” Piastri said. “So I don’t think you’re ever really going to see that from me, but no, it’s an incredible feeling. It’s something I’ve dreamed of since I was a kid.

“We’ve had a couple of opportunities through the last few races that we’ve come very close too, and now to make it happen is an incredible feeling. But I’m sure with more time… I think in Qatar last year, that didn’t fully sink in until probably the season ended. This will probably be a similar kind of feeling. It’s just quite a cool feeling, but quite hard to describe and know how to feel sometimes.”

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Norris pushed back on the team order to return the position to Piastri in the final stint before eventually doing so, but the Australian says he wasn’t worried that his teammate would defy the instruction.

“I don’t think I was really concerned. The only thing I was concerned about a bit was if there was a safety car, then it would have taken the situation out of our hands,” he said. “But we’d spoken about it at the timing of the stop that we would sort it back out. I had full trust in everyone in the team, including Lando, that we would make that happen.

“I’m sure it’s something we’ll discuss as a team. The information I had at the time was Lando was boxing early to cover Lewis [Hamilton] and I was going long to cover Max [Verstappen], essentially, because I knew that he’d stopped later and I think we were just being very safe.

“Of course, that naturally gave Lando an undercut and maybe made things a little bit more complicated than it needed to be, but I’m sure that’s something we’ll go through.”

Piastri wins first GP after team orders drama at McLaren

Oscar Piastri won his maiden grand prix in a controversial ending to the Hungarian Grand Prix after McLaren teammate Lando Norris slowed dramatically to hand him the lead with three laps to go. Piastri had controlled the first two-thirds of the race …

Oscar Piastri won his maiden grand prix in a controversial ending to the Hungarian Grand Prix after McLaren teammate Lando Norris slowed dramatically to hand him the lead with three laps to go.

Piastri had controlled the first two-thirds of the race after seizing first place from his pole-getting teammate with a better launch off the line, but the team had incidentally swapped their positions at the second pit stops in a bungled attempt to cover the threat of a Lewis Hamilton undercut from behind.

Hamilton stopped on lap 40, with Norris stopping on lap 45 and remaining ahead. But the undercut was powerful at the Hungaroring, and when Piastri stopped two laps later, he rejoined the race behind his teammate.

The lead driver is ordinarily given the rights to the first pit stop, and the Australian had been promised the positions would be swapped back before the end of the race in lieu, but Norris made clear immediately that he wasn’t interested in playing the team game.

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The Briton put his foot down, far exceeding the pace recommended to him by the team. His engineer, Will Joseph, implored him repeatedly to moderate his pace — ostensibly to manage the rubber to the end. Norris at first ignored the messages before eventually making clear that he intended to win the race.

“Tell him to catch me up then, please,” he said, arguing that he would have regardless pushed to capitalize on a mistake from Piastri in the middle stint, when he lost 3s running off the road at Turn 11.

The pleas from the pit wall became more urgent as Norris broke past the 5s barrier and the lap count ticked down.

“Lando, there are five laps to go,” Joseph told his driver. “The way to win a championship is not by yourself, it’s with the team. You’re going to need Oscar and you’re going to need the team.”

It took until the third-to-last lap for Norris to relent, dropping anchors on the main straight to theatrically wave his teammate into the lead. He briefly intimated that he would attempt to repass with DRS, but the lap count was against him, and Piastri was released to claim a victory that looked sure to be his before the second stops.

“Very, very special,” he said. “This has been the day I dreamt of as a kid, standing on the top step of an F1 podium.

“Obviously a bit complicated at the end, but I put myself in the right position at the start. Thank you to the team for an amazing effort and amazing car.

“It’s a hell of a lot of fun racing with McLaren. I can’t thank them enough for giving me the opportunity.”

Norris praised the team for delivering its first one-two finish since the 2021 Italian Grand Prix by dominant 12s margin but wouldn’t be drawn on his last-stint tactics.

“The team asked me to do it, so I did it, and that’s it,” he said. “An amazing day for us as a team. I think that’s the main thing.

“I’m so happy. It’s been a long journey to get to achieving this on merit, and that’s exactly what we did today, and a long way clear of the rest, so we did it in style as well.”

Hamilton completed the podium for Mercedes after a race-long fiery duel with old title foe Max Verstappen, who spectacularly self-destructed as he grappled with a recalcitrant car.

Verstappen’s long day started with a long-way-around move at the start. Andy Hone/Motorsport Images

Verstappen’s difficult day started at the first corner, when he ran off the road at the first turn but rejoined second ahead of Norris. It took four laps for the team to tell him to give back the position, firing him up for the first time in what would prove a long afternoon of frustration.

The Dutchman railed against the balance of the car, the tires, the quality of his opponents’ racecraft and his team’s own strategy decisions, and eventually the bile began showing up on track, with lock-ups aplenty in his battle for position with Hamilton.

A late first pit stop dropped him to fourth behind the Briton, and after being unable to find a way past in the middle stint, a late second stop dropped him to fifth behind Charles Leclerc in pursuit of a better tire offset.

He made short work of the Ferrari, but Hamilton again proved obdurate. Eventually he tried breaking through with brute force, locking up into the first turn and making wheel-to-wheel contact that sent the RB20 high into the air and landing with a thud in the run-off zone.

Both cars were able to continue, Hamilton in third but Verstappen back down to fifth, but the Dutchman faces the threat of a penalty after a post-race stewards investigation.

“Obviously, the close battle we had at the end was a bit hair-raising,” Hamilton said. “But that’s motor racing. I’m really happy. I’m grateful for the points.”

Leclerc finished fourth after a strong launch got him ahead of teammate Carlos Sainz, who took the flag sixth.

Sergio Perez recovered well from a 16th-place start to finish seventh, collecting six precious points on a tough day for Red Bull. George Russell, starting 17th, followed him home in eighth with a bonus point for fastest lap.

Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to execute a one-stop strategy, executing superbly to score two points for ninth place.

Lance Stroll completed the top 10 for Aston Martin ahead of teammate Fernando Alonso.

Daniel Ricciardo was rapid in the final stint but not fast enough to recover from two early pit stops that briefly dropped him to last in the middle of the race, finishing 12th ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, Alex Albon, Kevin Magnussen, Valtteri Bottas, Logan Sargeant, Esteban Ocon and Zhou Guanyu.

Pierre Gasly was the race’s only retirement after a suspected hydraulics problem.

Norris downplays importance of converting McLaren’s lockout to Hungarian GP win

Lando Norris says there is no added importance for McLaren to convert its front-row lockout at the Hungarian Grand Prix into victory. McLaren secured its first one-two in qualifying since the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix, with Norris edging out …

Lando Norris says there is no added importance for McLaren to convert its front-row lockout at the Hungarian Grand Prix into victory.

McLaren secured its first one-two in qualifying since the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix, with Norris edging out teammate Oscar Piastri by just 0.022s. The team looked quickest throughout the weekend as it tried to bounce back from the last race at Silverstone where strategic calls cost it a chance of victory with both cars, but Norris says that doesn’t increase the pressure to take the opportunity at the Hungaroring.

“Every single [qualifying] is important, every race is important,” Norris said. “It’s not [like] all of a sudden I need to do it and I need to prove my point; I don’t. We’ve done the best we could in every race. I think we’ve shown great pace and great opportunities, and I know we’ve missed out on some. We don’t need to get back into all of that stuff, but I would love to have a clean, strong weekend.

“From yesterday, already, we were very strong at the beginning in FP2, FP3, qualy now, so it would be nice just to have a nice Turn 1 and see what happens from there, but I’m not expecting it. I’m [still] expecting a difficult race with Oscar and Max [Verstappen] behind.

“Every one is important. Every time we’re trying to maximize every place, every point, and, yeah, the more we can try to get back on Max, the more we as a team can get on Red Bull and other constructors, the better. [There’s] no point or emphasis on trying to beat a particular someone or something. It’s just go out and do what we do because we’re doing a good job.”

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Norris believes the lower temperatures and light rain on Saturday actually played into McLaren’s hands despite its strong performance in the heat of Friday, but he feels the race pace will be competitive regardless of conditions.

“As confident, I think, as we have been for a while, like both qualy and races, we’ve been strong,” he said. “I think our bad one has been third or fourth, but our good ones have been chances to win. Definitely, once again, a good opportunity for that, for both of us and for us as a team to score some big points, and that’s our target tomorrow.”

Teammate Piastri says McLaren can make big ground in the constructors’ championship with a one-two result in the race, but is confident the two drivers can work effectively together while still fighting each other for the win.

“It’s cool to be here, especially when you get a result like this,” Piastri said. “I think [it’s] the first one-two in qualifying for McLaren for a very long time, so very happy. Of course, when I miss out by two hundredths, you think of all the little things you can do a bit better, but an amazing result for the team.

“We had a bit of a tricky day on my side yesterday, so it was nice to bounce back this morning, and then obviously this afternoon in qualy, it wasn’t easy. A lot of decisions on the fly, and to end up with both cars on the front row is an amazing result.

“Of course I want to get into the lead, but we have both cars on the front row. We’ve got a big task ahead of us trying to win this championship as a team, and we’ll be smart. We’ve got a very quick car. It’s been working extremely well this weekend, and we want to keep it one-two, and I think we’ll fight amongst ourselves for who gets one.”

UPDATE: McLaren’s protest over Piastri deletion rejected

McLaren failed an attempted protested of the qualifying results at the Austrian Grand Prix after Oscar Piastri’s lap time was deleted for exceeding track limits. Piastri set the third fastest time at the end of Q3 but then saw his final attempt …

McLaren failed an attempted protested of the qualifying results at the Austrian Grand Prix after Oscar Piastri’s lap time was deleted for exceeding track limits.

Piastri set the third fastest time at the end of Q3 but then saw his final attempt deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 6. The corner in question has an exit curb that is followed by a large gravel trap, and footage appeared to show that Piastri marginally crossed the white line with all four wheels while not touching enough of the gravel to lose lap time.

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After being demoted to seventh on the grid, the Australian called the situation “embarrassing” given the proximity of the gravel and how that would penalize any driver that goes wider than the exit curb, but the FIA still deletes lap times even if cars go into the gravel because they have left the track.

McLaren’s team principal visited the stewards immediately after the end of the qualifying session to discuss the issue, and the team then lodged an official protest of the results at the Red Bull Ring.

Later, the stewards deemed the protest inadmissible, because a decision of the stewards is not open to protest, and McLaren did not specify any relevant regulations or who the protest was lodged against, as well as addressing it to the wrong administrator.

The outcome of qualifying stands, with Piastri starting from seventh place on Sunday.

Piastri calls track limits situation ‘embarrassing’ after deleted lap time

Oscar Piastri has described the track limits situation at the Austrian Grand Prix “embarrassing” after having his fastest lap time in qualifying deleted for running too wide at Turn 6. Qualifying for the GP appeared to provide the exact same top six …

Oscar Piastri has described the track limits situation at the Austrian Grand Prix “embarrassing” after having his fastest lap time in qualifying deleted for running too wide at Turn 6.

Qualifying for the GP appeared to provide the exact same top six order as sprint qualifying on Friday as Piastri went third behind Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, but then the Australian had his lap time deleted for exceeding track limits. Turn 6 has gravel right up to the exit curb and Piastri almost dipped a wheel in the gravel, but that meant there was just enough space for his car to no longer be in contract with the track edge, and he feels it shouldn’t count as exceeding limits.

“For me it’s embarrassing,” Piastri told Sky Sports. “We do all this work for track limits, put gravel in in places, and I didn’t even go off the track. I stayed on the track, probably my best Turn 6 and it gets deleted. I mean, I don’t know why they’ve spent hundreds of thousands, if not millions, trying to change the last two corners when you still have corners you can go off. But anyway, everyone else kept it in the track, I didn’t — that’s how it goes.

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“For me that was probably the best Turn 6 I took. I was right to the limit of the track. I think that’s what everyone wants to see — again, we’ve spent so much effort trying to get rid of these problems, there is no reason this corner should be an issue for track limits, especially when you stay on the track like I did. Or not, in the gravel.

“Yeah, for me, obviously being the only one that’s had that happen to me I’m probably more vocal about it right now, but I think it’s embarrassing that you see us pushing right to the limit of what we can do and if I’m one centimeter more I’m in the gravel and completely ruin my lap anyway, and it gets deleted.”

Although he believes the gravel trap should police the track limits by penalizing drivers for touching it, Piastri says the need to push to the limits is a positive aspect of how competitive F1 is right now.

“It’s painful. It’s frustrating. But, at the end of the day, it is the same for everybody,” he conceded. “Sometimes you’re on the good end of being a few milliseconds faster, and some weekends you’re on the other end and you’re a few milliseconds slower.

“I saw in Q1 that, I think, from like P6 to P15 was like half a tenth, which I think for the sport is a fantastic thing. But for us as drivers… it makes life tough, and the laps we do out there are really pushing to the absolute limit — or over, it turns out.

“So, I think it’s just a really cool thing for everyone involved. Obviously it makes life at the very front a bit more difficult and you can’t make any mistakes at all. But that’s how Formula 1 should be.”

The McLaren driver is hopeful he can still recover a number of positions from seventh on the grid, given the pace shown in the sprint where he finished second.

“I think we can. It will be tough. I think Max [Verstappen] looked to be a step ahead of everyone [in qualifying],” he said. “It seems very tight between us, Mercedes and Ferrari, I would say. But the pace was good in the sprint, there’s more strategy involved — just more opportunities [in the GP]. So, hopefully, we can try to capitalize on some of them and make some progress back towards the front.”

Verstappen eager to test Red Bull pace vs McLaren in sprint

Max Verstappen says the sprint at the Austrian Grand Prix will give a telling indication of the relative pace differences between Red Bull and McLaren this weekend. McLaren has consistently been a threat to Red Bull since introducing an upgrade in …

Max Verstappen says the sprint at the Austrian Grand Prix will give a telling indication of the relative pace differences between Red Bull and McLaren this weekend.

McLaren has consistently been a threat to Red Bull since introducing an upgrade in Miami, with Lando Norris winning in Florida and then finishing second to Verstappen in Imola, Canada and Spain. After taking pole position for Saturday’s sprint by under 0.1s from Norris once again, Verstappen says the trend appears to be continuing but he’s keen to learn more in the shorter race.

“We started off the day well, the car was already in a good window — a little niggle with the sensor but we fixed that quickly — and then heading into qualifying I think the car was pretty strong. I could push,” Verstappen said. “Of course there are always areas where we can do better, so we’ll look at that tonight, but definitely a good start to the weekend.

“At the end of the day, when really everyone is pushing flat out [McLaren] are again behind me, so for sure they are quick as well. We seem quick in the high speed, which is nice around here, hopefully we can keep that going also tomorrow, but of course the sprint race will give us an early indication of how the pace will be in the race for every car so I’m looking forward to that.”

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Norris had a similar outlook to Verstappen having looked most competitive in the final part of sprint qualifying compared to the earlier phases, and he says he’s confident he can take the fight to the Red Bull driver over the 24 laps.

“I think reasonably good, to be honest — I never got quite comfortable until probably my final lap,” Norris said. “So I’m happy with that. Close, as it has been the whole year, so no difference, but it must have been a nice lap by Max and a good position for the race tomorrow.”

Oscar Piastri will start from third as both McLarens secured strong grid positions, and the Australian says it was a relief to bounce back from a challenging weekend in Barcelona.

“The position is quite good obviously but the last lap, there were a couple of corners I could tidy up,” Piastri said. “It’s nice to at least know where the time is — obviously a bit of a rough one last weekend, so I feel like we’re back on the pace. The new front wing was working well, so excited for the rest of the weekend now.

“The gap to Max is not massive and I know there were a couple of big mistakes on that lap, so we’re definitely in the mix.”

McLaren can now compete for wins everywhere – Piastri

Oscar Piastri says recent form has shown McLaren is capable of fighting for victory at every type of circuit moving forward, following his podium at the Monaco Grand Prix. Lando Norris won in Miami when McLaren introduced a major upgrade to its car, …

Oscar Piastri says recent form has shown McLaren is capable of fighting for victory at every type of circuit moving forward, following his podium at the Monaco Grand Prix.

Lando Norris won in Miami when McLaren introduced a major upgrade to its car, and followed that by finishing second to Max Verstappen by just 0.7s in Imola. Piastri — who qualified well at both events but failed to score a podium — then just missed out on pole position to Charles Leclerc in Monaco and finished second to the Ferrari, with the spread of tracks confirming to the Australian that McLaren is now a permanent fixture at the front.

“I think it’s been three very different circuits in the past three races, and we’ve been competitive at all of them,” Piastri said. “Miami was probably one of our worst circuits before this year. Imola has always been kind to us, but we had a very strong weekend there, and [Monaco]… Let’s say our car’s never been the strongest in the slow corners, and we’ve been very quick again.

“So I think we can be confident wherever we go. I feel like we don’t have to rely on the high-speed circuits like we did last year to get our results, which is a very exciting thing to have going forward. And, yeah, I think the pecking order is as tight as it’s ever been, especially [in Monaco].

“Going into qualifying, I think we thought that there could be any one of four teams on pole, which I don’t think we’ve been able to say for a while. So, I think we can definitely be in the fight every weekend.”

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Team principal Andrea Stella believes part of McLaren’s confidence stems from the fact that its latest developments are actually proving more beneficial in low-speed corners than the team had been anticipating.

“In terms of the traits of the upgraded car compared to last year, what we see and what we expected is just more downforce in all conditions,” Stella said. “The car compared to what we expected seems to be well-behaved also in low speed, possibly slightly more than we anticipated based on our development tools.

“Which is good news, but obviously this is something that we need to understand very accurately so that we have the right information to further develop in this direction because it seems to be very profitable for lap time, and also seems to make us competitive in circuits which have low-speed corners.”

Floor damage made Piastri welcome Monaco’s red flag

Oscar Piastri welcomed the long red flag delay and lack of overtaking at the Monaco Grand Prix as it helped him hold onto second place despite significant floor damage. Carlos Sainz was attempting to go side-by-side with Piastri through the first …

Oscar Piastri welcomed the long red flag delay and lack of overtaking at the Monaco Grand Prix as it helped him hold onto second place despite significant floor damage.

Carlos Sainz was attempting to go side-by-side with Piastri through the first corner on the original start of the race and the pair touched, with Sainz picking up a puncture that saw him go straight on at Casino Square. A bigger crash behind between Sergio Perez and the Haas drivers neutralized the race and allowed Sainz to restart in third but also gave McLaren time to try and repair Piastri’s car so he could retain second to the flag.

“I definitely felt the touch at Turn 1 and at that part of the car, it’s such a sensitive part,” Piastri said. “The team told me how much downforce I was losing before we tried to fix it and it was a pretty big number. I don’t know what we managed to get it down to, but yeah, obviously the length of the red flag helped us out quite a lot there.

“Being in Monaco, it’s probably the one track where having damage doesn’t hurt you as much. It was a very, very small touch. But with these cars, especially with the floor being so sensitive to the downforce it generates, it can ruin your race very easily. I was very happy we could try and fix it.

“It was OK. I think for the first half of the race, it was impossible to tell what the penalty of that was. I think towards the end, probably a combination of trying to keep the pace of the race reasonably quick, plus the floor, I just struggled a little bit towards the end, but overall pretty happy with it. The last 10 laps or so, I was pretty happy we were in Monaco.”

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Piastri picked up his first podium of the season with the second place, and believes it has been a long time coming this year with the pace McLaren has been able to show.

“I’m very, very happy. My third podium in F1 — certainly it doesn’t get old.,” he said. “Very happy to have it here in Monaco especially — if there’s one podium apart from your home podium that you want to stand on, it’s probably here.

“Very, very pleased for the whole team. I think especially for our side of the garage, it’s been a promising few weekends now and nice to finally get a good result out of it.”

The Australian also admits he had one attempt at looking to pass leader Charles Leclerc early on in the race given the way he was controlling the lap times, but once he had shown any intent then the Ferrari was able to cover any future attacks off.

“I had an attempt about 10 or 15 laps in, into Turn 8,” he said. “We were going pretty slow. I think at one point we were going slower than Formula 2. When you’re going that slow, you’ve got a fair few options, but I kind of knew that once I showed my hand in where I was going to try and overtake, that he would probably be wise to it from there.

“So I managed to get very close in Turn 7, one lap. I tried to show the nose in Turn 8 but he reacted just quick enough, so after that point I knew I was going to be very limited on options.”

2024 Monaco Grand Prix odds, picks and predictions

Looking at the odds for Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix, with expert picks and predictions.

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The Formula 1 heads to Circuit de Monaco for the 2024 Monaco Grand Prix Sunday. The green flag is scheduled to drop shortly after 9 a.m. ET (ABC/ESPN+). Let’s analyze BetMGM Sportsbook’s lines around the 2024 Monaco Grand Prix odds, and make our expert picks and predictions.

2024 Monaco Grand Prix: What you need to know

  • Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen has won 2 of the past 3 races at Circuit de Monaco
  • Verstappen leads the 2024 Driver Standings with 161 points, 48 points clear of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc
  • Leclerc is on the pole for Sunday’s race, snapping a record 8 consecutive pole positions for Verstappen
  • Verstappen clipped the wall in qualifying, and he’ll go off 6th on Sunday from the 3rd row
  • McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was 0.154 seconds behind Leclerc, and he’ll start 2nd
  • Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was 0.248 off the pace, and he goes off 3rd from the 2nd row
  • Lando Norris, the winner of the Miami Grand Prix, will go off from the 4th position in Sunday’s race
  • Mercedes’ George Russell rounds out the top 5 as he’ll start from the 3rd row in the grid
  • 3-time Monaco GP champ Lewis Hamilton (2008, 2016, 2019) will start from the 7th spot Sunday

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2024 Monaco Grand Prix – Expert pick

Odds provided by BetMGM Sportsbook; access USA TODAY Sports Scores and Sports Betting Odds hub for a full list. Lines last updated at 2:36 a.m. ET.

Leclerc (-225) is on the pole, leading the F1 paddock Sunday. The 26-year-old Monegasque driver looks to be the 1st winner from his country since Louis Chiron drove his Bugatti to the checkered flag back in 1931 in the 3rd-ever Monaco GP.

Leclerc appeared to be on his way to a win last season at his home track, but he was unable to secure the victory yet again.

Leclerc had his hopes crushed in 2019 by a poor team strategy when he was in the hunt for a win. In 2021, he was on the pole but had a crash in the final lap of qualifying and was unable to start. In 2022, Ferrari’s strategy error caused him to go from 1st to 4th. Last season, an impending penalty during qualifying was his demise.

Leclerc appears to have caught a break with Verstappen clapping the wall during qualifying for this year’s race, as he goes off from the front of the grid. But risking 2.25 times your potential return on Leclerc is quite risky, especially with the way things have continually fallen apart for him in the past.

Some strange things have happened to Leclerc this weekend, though, including an advertising banner hitting the front wing of his car in Q1 to slow his time.

PASS, and look to some drivers with a little longer odds instead.

2024 Monaco Grand Prix – Long shots

MAX VERSTAPPEN (+800) has won 2 of the past 3 races. It’s unbelievable that you can get this price on the F1 standings leader, but it’s because he goes off 6th in the grid after the qualifying miscue.

Still, the best value on the board is taking the current F1 leader.

If you’re not sold on Verstappen, take a look at McLaren’s OSCAR PIASTRI (+450), who was nipping at the heels of Leclerc on the pole lap. He has reportedly struggled on Turns 5 and 10, so bettors will want to watch those turns rather closely on race day.

Sunday 3-race parlay

VERSTAPPEN to win Monaco GP (+800), WILL POWER to win Indy 500 (+725), and TYLER REDDICK to win Coca-Cola 600 (+1000) pays 815.75 to 1 at BetMGM Sportsbook. It’s a long-shot, sure, but that’s what makes it fun. A simple $2 bet would profit $1,623.50. That’s worth a roll of the dice.

Check out Motorsports Wire: For the auto racing fan, USA TODAY Sports Media Group’s website covers NASCAR, F1, IndyCar and more.

Play our free daily Pick’em Challenge and win! Play now!

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For more sports betting picks and tips, check out SportsbookWire.com and BetFTW.

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