Oscar Piastri's hopes of a big weekend at the Monaco Grand Prix to drag himself back into the world title race hardly looked like materialising as McLaren struggled in the opening practice sessions.
On a weekend when the celebrated team were set to celebrate their 1000th race in F1, McLaren had a miserable start on Friday as world champ Lando Norris stopped on track in second practice after losing power and Piastri struggled to match the pace of Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull.
The Australian was eighth in the first session, and improved only to seventh (1 min 14.088sec) in the afternoon stint, with his best more than a second slower than the pacesetter, Lewis Hamilton (1:13.026), who led home his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc by 0.111sec for a one-two.
