The Australian climbed from seventh on the grid to fourth by the chequered flag, capitalising on penalties and late-race drama to secure 12 valuable championship points on a difficult weekend for the Woking squad.
Piastri admitted the result was a positive outcome given the circumstances, even if McLaren lacked the pace to challenge the frontrunners throughout the weekend.
“When you make up three spots in Monaco, that’s always a good day,” he said.
“Whilst I didn’t do the overtaking myself, we did a good job of taking advantage of things playing out ahead of us and being smart with the strategy.
“Getting those 12 points was important.”
While Piastri maximised the opportunities that came his way, he acknowledged McLaren’s underlying performance was a concern heading into the next round in Spain.
“However, our pace wasn’t very strong today and we need to work out why we have struggled so much this weekend.
“Looking ahead to Barcelona and further on into the season, we have a lot of work to do to close the gap to the front runners.
“Thanks to the team for their work, let’s see what we can do next weekend.”
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Piastri’s clean and composed drive provided one of the few bright spots for McLaren on an afternoon dominated by another commanding performance from Kimi Antonelli, who claimed a fifth consecutive victory and extended his championship advantage.
The Australian had spent much of the race running quietly inside the top six before late incidents, safety cars and penalties elevated him further up the order.
After crossing the line fifth on the road, he was promoted to fourth following a penalty for Pierre Gasly.
McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella praised Piastri’s execution in a race where opportunities were limited.
“Oscar drove an exceptionally precise and controlled race,” he said.
“He kept it clean, made almost no mistakes, and executed our plan perfectly.
Despite the result, Stella echoed Piastri’s concerns about the team’s competitiveness.
“Despite the positive operational and strategic decisions, we have to be honest with ourselves regarding our underlying pace,” he admitted.
“Today, Ferrari and Mercedes were operating in a completely different dimension.
“It is clear that McLaren has a significant amount of work to do back at the factory to make the car fundamentally faster and more reliable.”
The race proved far more painful on the other side of the garage, with defending world champion Lando Norris suffering his second consecutive retirement after a power unit issue forced him out on lap 45.
It marked the first back-to-back DNFs of Norris’ F1 career and leaves his title defence hanging by a thread.
The Briton now trails championship leader Antonelli by 98 points, with neither Norris nor Piastri having managed to win a grand prix in 2026.
“It wasn’t our weekend and, unfortunately, it’s another DNF for the team,” Norris said.
“We faced issues from Friday that had the team working until 4am into Saturday to get the car back on track, only to encounter another problem in the race.
“It’s tough and frustrating for everyone because we’re putting in a huge effort to improve, but at the moment reliability is getting the better of us.”
Norris said the team remained determined to address its reliability concerns ahead of the upcoming Barcelona round.
“We’ll keep our heads up and stay positive,” he said.
“We know the areas we need to address, and reliability is top of the list.
“The team deserves credit for their commitment, and we’ll keep working hard for them.
“I’m hopeful we can return to form in Barcelona, give ourselves something to be excited about, and show what we can do next time out.”
Stella later confirmed the retirement was caused by a previously unseen power unit anomaly that eventually became terminal despite efforts to manage the issue.
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