Formula 1 championship leader Oscar Piastri believes McLaren has the pace to compete for pole position at the Monaco Grand Prix - as long as it can recover from a “very messy” Friday.Piastri escaped lasting damage after going straight into the tyre wall at Sainte Devote just 19 minutes into the second free practice session and recovered to set the second-fastest time.

They have comfortably been the slowest of the top four teams and suffered a double Q2 exit at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. A repeat showing in Monaco would be disastrous, given how difficult it is to overtake on the narrow streets of the principality.