What F1 GPS data reveals about Piastri's Monaco near-miss

Piastri became Leclerc's closest rival for pole at Monte Carlo, but lost 0.154 seconds as the local hero claimed a third pole in four years at the famous street track.

At the start of their respective best and final laps in Q3, GPS data shows Leclerc – riding high after his frustration at Imola over the power of Ferrari's starting engine – started 3km/h better than Piastri .

Thanks to Ste Dévote, Leclerc gains 0.06 seconds on Piastri, which he more than doubles to 0.14 seconds at the top of Massenet, after which the McLaren almost erases the Ferrari's advantage as it heads towards Mirabeau.

Here, however, Piastri pays for attacking the right-hander downhill 3.7 mph faster than Leclerc – as he dispatches almost two tenths under braking and spins the wheels on the exit before catching up on the brief run even further downhill towards the Loews Hairpin.

Here is Piastri's biggest loss of the entire final lap, as on the exit Leclerc's 0.23 second gap is restored before Piastri manages to recover again with a better run into the right hander under Mirabeau and Porter too.

Leclerc brakes for the New Chicane by almost a tenth. Piastri gets a little too close to the barrier on the inside here, then checks slightly in the second part of the complex which arrives quickly, meaning he has doubled on the exit and in the run to Tabac, where again once the Ferrari is superior.

But Piastri remains in power for a little longer. Leclerc slamming on the sidewalks and taking a bumpy ride through the second part of the pool brings Piastri back to conditions. The two men arrive on the right of Rascasse, separated by only 0.013 seconds.

Yet here Piastri loses critical momentum and it repeats itself in the final corner, resulting in a 0.135 second deficit heading into the pit straight that ends 0.154 seconds behind at the finish line.

“I think turn 5 [Mirabeau] and turn 10, the chicane after the tunnel, were not my best,” Piastri said of his final flight during the post-qualifying press conference.

“I think the rest of the lap was pretty solid, I just struggled a little in those two corners.

“I don’t know if that would have been enough for pole.

“For me, there’s no point in saying if you could have done it… Max summed it up very well a few weeks ago.

“I won't repeat it, but it's a good analogy and I think everyone can say the same thing. So yeah, I'm pretty happy overall.

“If you had taken the second half of my first lap in Q3 and the first half of the second, that would have been enough. But yeah, just a few mistakes at the end.