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F3 AUSSIES STRONG AGAIN IN AUSTRIA

Oscar Piastri was best of the Aussies in F3 in qualifying fourth - Photo: LAT

By Dan McCarthy

Oscar Piastri was best of the Aussies in F3 in qualifying fourth - Photo: LAT

Oscar Piastri was best of the Aussies in F3 in qualifying fourth – Photo: LAT

Yet again the young Australians in the FIA Formula 3 Championship performed well in qualifying, with two Aussies starting inside the top seven for the Round 2 feature race in Austria tomorrow

By DAN McCARTHY

Pole position went to Danish driver Frederik Vesti in a red flag interrupted session, the Prema driver claimed pole by 0.123s from experienced Formula 3 driver David Beckmann.

The third Prema driver of Logan Sargeant sat on top of the times when the session got back underway for the final time with four minutes remaining, but he was unable to get out onto the circuit with a mechanical issue and dropped to third.

After winning on debut in the first race of the season and finishing eighth in the reverse grid affair, Aussie Oscar Piastri returns to the Red Bull Ring as the championship leader.

In qualifying Piastri was positioned second with a couple of minutes left but was shuffled down to fourth, the Victorian qualifying only 0.21s off pole position but only one position lower than where he won from last week.

“Qualifying was not bad but could have been better. P4 is not too shabby even though having both my teammates in front of me is not ideal.” said Piastri.

“I think tomorrow it’s going to be very interesting with the rain which is on the forecast and we definitely want to fight. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow.”

After scoring his maiden podium in the championship seven days ago, Tasmanian Alex Peroni backed it up and will start tomorrow’s race from seventh.

New Zealander Liam Lawson squeezed himself into the top 10 in the closing stages qualifying 10th 0.475s off pole but showed strong race pace in the opening round.

Queenslander Jack Doohan qualified in 23rd, a case of what could have been for the HWA driver. Doohan sat eighth with four minutes to go, but his crew were unable to restart the car and could only watch as he fell outside the top 20.

Calan Williams was caught out by one of the red flags and was unable to complete his fastest lap, as a result the Jenzer Motorsport driver will start from 26th.

The first Formula 3 race of the weekend begins tomorrow evening at 6.20pm AEST.

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