Oscar Piastri (P10, 1 pt): 7/10
Oscar Piastri had been the first of the 2023 rookies to pick up championship points, in somewhat muddled circumstances in his native Australia, and now he's shown that it was no fluke with his second appearance in the top ten in a rather more straightforward outcome in Monaco, without question one of the hardest of circuits for any F1 newcomer to master. Understandably, he took time to acclimatise himself to the twisting streets of the principality in practice (P17, P18, P19 - nothing if not consistent in session-to-session trajectory) and it was therefore a surprise when he not only made the first cut in qualifying but only missed out on Q3 by less than two hundredths of a second to his team mate Lando Norris, who had already crashed. He was understandably happy to have made so much improvement and to have closed the gap to Norris. Starting in sequential positions on the grid, the pair proceeded to hang out together for the entire race: Norris was ahead for the first 50 laps, then Piastri took over until his own stop on lap 54. By this time the rain had started and everyone was moving to inters, forcing a second stop from Norris who then had to wait until lap 58 before reclaiming the lead role. It looked like Piastri would miss out on the points, but Yuki Tsunoda's late-race brake problems showed that all good points come to nice Aussies who stick at it all the way to the finish.
Lando Norris (P9, 2 pts): 7.5/10
Lando Norris was looking strong in the McLaren in practice, finishing in the top ten in all three sessions heading into qualifying, and he continued that form into the first round. Unfortunately in Q2 he crashed the car, just managing to limp back to pit lane and avoid triggering a red flag. He had an anxious wait to see if his existing time would hold up and see him through to the final pole shoot-out. The McLaren engineers managed to make a model MCL60 out of lashings of duct tape that allowed him to briefly come out and play, but in the end P10 on the grid - just ahead of team mate Oscar Piastri - was the best he could achieve. The pair then hung out together on track all day on Sunday, Norris leading for the first 49 laps before he pitted to trade mediums for hard tyres. Unfornately he was forced to pit again soon after for inters when the rain proved to consist of more than just a few drops after all. Norris finally recovered the lead role over Piastri on lap 58, and the pair both benefited from Yuki Tsunoda suffering from brake-related issues in the wet conditions, enabling them to pull off what had appeared a somewhat unlikely double points finish for McLaren. At one point in the transition Norris had been faster on inters than Max Verstappen on slicks, and Norris admitted he had been willing a brave marshal to show the Red Bull a blue flag to let him pass: "Max would have hated that!" he giggled.
