PIASTRI TAKES FORMULA 2 CHAMPIONSHIP
Australian Oscar Piastri is the 2021 FIA Formula 2 champion, the Prema Racing driver marched forward in the first Sprint Race of the weekend to secure the title with a third place finish.
It is his third championship in three years after winning Renault Eurocup in 2019 and the FIA Formula 3 Championship last year.
Piastri joins George Russell and Charles Leclerc as the only drivers to win the third-tier F3 championship and second-tier F2 titles back-to-back.
The race to secure the title was a typical mature and authoritative drive that we have become accustomed to.
After taking his fifth consecutive pole position, Sprint Race 1 sees the top 10 qualifiers inverted and therefore Piastri started from 10th.
The Victorian made a blinding start overtaking fellow Australian Jack Doohan, former championship rival Guanyu Zhou, Ralph Boschung and the slow starting Theo Pourchaire all before Turn 1.
The Alpine Academy driver and 2022 Alpine F1 reserve driver then continued to progress without incident.
Only Piastri’s teammate Robert Shwartzman deny Piastri the title today, however all Piastri had to do was finish in the top five to wrap it up in the opening race.
Piastri latched onto his teammates tail on lap 1 and continued to move through the field with him, Piastri overtook Englishman Dan Ticktum on lap 3 with a move around the outside at Turn 9, and then overtook New Zealander Liam Lawson at Turn 6 on lap 7.
He now sat fourth right behind his teammate Shwartzman and was closing in on the leading pair, Jehan Daruvala and Felipe Drugovich, however the momentum for Shwartzman began to slow.
Piastri could have remained in fourth to win the title, but with a clear pace advantage over his Russian teammate he elected to go for the move and pulled off a well executed pass on his teammate to take third position into Turn 6 on lap 20.
He defended on the run to the new Turn 9, and from then on was never threatened.
He remained in third, finishing on the podium and secure the FIA Formula 2 Championship in style.
Red Bull junior driver Jehan Daruvala fought off a late race attack from Felipe Drugovich to win the race.
Drugovich finished less than 0.9s ahead of Piastri while Shwarzman was only 0.6s behind Piastri at the line.
Kiwi Lawson rounded out the top five from Ticktum, Pourchaire, Zhou, Boschung and Kiwi Marcus Armstrong.
The second Aussie Doohan, in just his fourth Formula 2 Championship race finished in 11th, less than one second away from a point.
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