CHAMPIONS DRIVE FROM PIASTRI
Champions drive from Oscar Piastri – Photo: Suttons
Australian Oscar Piastri launched himself back into the FIA Formula 3 Championship lead while his major rival Logan Sargeant finished down the order at Monza.
By DAN McCARTHY
After receiving a post qualifying penalty, Victorian Piastri started the race in 15th position, but the determined Prema Racing driver stormed through the field to finish on the podium.
His biggest title rival and teammate Sargeant benefited from the nine penalties handed out after qualifying to start the race from fifth position.
In the race itself, the American quickly fell back to the outskirts of the top 10 before being overtaken by Piastri.
The Prema pair fought tooth and nail for several laps until Sargeant was spun around by Clement Novalak just over the halfway stage of the 22-lap race,
Novalak received a 10s penalty for the incident, while Sargeant finished the race a lonely 26th place.
The other Australians had a 22-lap rollercoaster ride, Calan Williams started fourth and was sitting in the top five when contact with fellow Australian Alex Peroni dropped him to the rear of the field. The Jenzer Motorsport driver would finish a disappointing 25th after a race that showed such promise.
Peroni finished the race just outside the points in 11th, before being handed a 5s penalty for the incident, demoting him to 17th position.
Jack Doohan stayed out of trouble for most of the race, the Queenslander quietly crept up the order and finished 12th and has a real shot at points in tomorrow’s inverted top 10 race.
The manic race was won by the third Prema Racing driver Frederik Vesti who himself started from ninth position.
Vesti was a major benefactor of a late race safety car, taking full advantage of the condensed pack to snatch his second race victory of the season.
After taking pole, Theo Pourchaire started the race sixth (another victim of the post qualifying penalties.) However, he shot through early and led much of the race only to lose the lead on the 20th lap, he finished 0.899s behind Vesti in second.
A penultimate lap pass on Jake Hughes gave Piastri his most important podium finish of the season.
David Beckmann finished fourth ahead of Hughes and pole sitter Liam Lawson. Lirim Zendeli, Bent Viscaal, Enzo Fittipaldi and Michael Belov rounded out the top 10-point scoring finishers in a frenetic race at Monza.
The second race of the weekend takes place at 5.40pm AEST and can be viewed live on Fox Sports 506.
For more of the latest motorsport news pick up the current issue of Auto Action. Also make sure you follow us on social media Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or our weekly email newsletter for all the latest updates between issues.
