Piastri assesses prospects for Barcelona after ‘most challenging weekend of the year so far’ in Monaco

Oscar Piastri is hopeful that he can continue to build on his positive start to the season at the Spanish Grand Prix, despite experiencing what he deemed as his “most challenging” weekend of the year so far last time out in Monaco.

Having taken four Grand Prix victories across the opening eight rounds of the campaign – as well as an additional three podium finishes – Piastri remains the championship leader as the paddock arrives in Barcelona, holding a total of 161 points.

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However, his advantage over McLaren team mate Lando Norris was cut to just three points in Monte Carlo after a trickier outing for the Australian saw him finish in P3 behind Norris and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

Asked to reflect on the season so far and how he assesses the challenge of the upcoming weekend at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Thursday’s media day, Piastri said: “It’s been a great first third of the year, it’s pretty hard to complain with the start we’ve had.

MONTE-CARLO, MONACO - MAY 25: Oscar Piastri of Australia driving the (81) McLaren MCL39 Mercedes on — Piastri remains in the lead of the Drivers’ Championship, despite a challenging weekend last time out in Monaco

“Obviously the results have been good, where I am in the championship is obviously great, but I think in general it’s been just a very satisfying start to the year.

“We’ve had a lot of very strong weekends – a couple of blips here and there of course – but it’s impossible to go eight weekends without a couple of things you can improve on. Very happy with how things have been going and hopefully we can keep it that way.”

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Piastri was then pushed on whether Monaco had been something of a blip, with the 24-year-old having admitted during Qualifying in Monte Carlo that he had been “struggling to get into the groove”.

‘It’s been a great first third of the year’ – Piastri pleased with season so far

“It was a bit more of a struggle than most weekends, probably the most challenging of the year so far,” the six-time race winner acknowledged. “But I think we’ve already understood why to a pretty good extent.

“Like I’ve said before, you’re going to have tough moments in a championship, not every day is going to be perfect, but as long as you can learn the lessons then that’s what counts – especially at this part of the year.

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“You obviously want to be strong at the back end of the year when the pressure really ramps up. So, a slightly more tricky weekend, I think we got on top of things eventually, but it’s not a track where you can find that big step once things are good – you kind of need to gradually build and that’s what I was missing a bit.”