Piastri makes perfect debut
FIA FORMULA 3
RED BULL RING (AUT) 4-5 JULY
ROUND 1
Australian Formula 1 hero Mark Webber took to social media last Sunday in fury that his country’s media had ignored the
FIA Formula 3 Championship opener at the Red Bull Ring, and you could see his point. Victorian Oscar Piastri, the reigning Formula Renault Eurocup champion and a Webber protege, had driven a beautifully judged race to victory on his F3 debut.
And Tasmanian Alex Peroni, in his first race since he was injured in a horrific shunt at Monza last September, finished third.
But while Webber was fuming on Sunday, they were celebrating across the Tasman Sea in New Zealand. As if having Jacinda Ardern as their prime minister and Scott Dixon as their greatest racing driver isn’t reason enough for joy, the country’s Red Bull Junior Liam Lawson picked and paced his way skilfully from fifth on the reversed grid to take his maiden F3 success. Yep, it was a ripper event for the boys from down under.
‘Beautifully judged’ Piastri’s win for Prema Racing on Saturday may have been, but it also owed something to luck – thanks to the not so beautiful judgement of some of his rivals. Poleman Sebastian Fernandez was slow away, allowing front-row starter Lirim Zendeli and Piastri to draw abreast, but the Venezuelan decided to ignore the fact that cars were inside him and turned in at Turn 1 regardless. The bump sent Piastri into Zendeli, and Fernandez to the pits and retirement. Even so, Piastri – remarkably unscathed despite tyre marks down both sides of the car – outdragged Zendeli on the run to Turn 3, and took a lead he never lost.
While Zendeli held up the pack behind, Piastri raced into a comfortable threesecond lead, and it was lap six before the Trident driver’s defences were breached. Zendeli appeared not to be so comfortable on the brakes into Turn 4, and he was divebombed simultaneously by Logan Sargeant and Peroni.
Sargeant brought the gap down to Prema team-mate Piastri so that the interval was 1.7s at the flag, with the Campos Racing car of Peroni in tow, but nothing could deny Piastri a debut win in F3. And with Sargeant second and Frederik Vesti also passing Zendeli to claim fourth, there was little sign that Prema’s position as the pre-eminent F3 force is coming to an end.
Lawson, from 12th on the grid, had put in a brilliant opening lap to rise to seventh, then made up one further place on David Beckmann for sixth. But it was on Sunday that he really starred.
The Hitech GP driver got up to third on the opening lap, with reversed-grid poleman Clement Novalak leading from Beckmann. On the fourth tour Beckmann got in front, and Novalak’s retaliatory bid resulted in the 2019 British F3 champion running wide and Lawson moving into second. Two laps later, Lawson pulled off a lovely outside move on Beckmann into Turn 4, and he was in front.
Richard Verschoor, last year’s Macau Grand Prix winner, had picked his way through to second before a late safety car, but the MP Motorsport man could merely shadow Lawson over the two laps to the finish, while Carlin driver Novalak got back ahead of Beckmann to claim third.