Piastri crowned in thrilling finale
FIA FORMULA 3 MUGELLO (ITA) 12-13 SEPTEMBER ROUND 9/9
Six drivers entered the final round of the 2020 FIA Formula 3 season at Mugello with a mathematical chance of taking the championship, but it was Renault F1 junior Oscar Piastri who walked away with the title despite scoring just four points.
Piastri headed into the finale with an eight-point advantage over his Prema Racing team-mate Logan Sargeant, and 24 over ART Grand Prix’s Theo Pourchaire.
The outside title hopes of Pourchaire were boosted by the knowledge that both Piastri and Sargeant would have grid penalties.
Piastri’s starting disadvantage was amplified on Friday when he could only manage 11th in qualifying – 16th on the grid – while Sargeant was second fastest, and fifth on the grid after his drop was applied.
Piastri traded blows with multiple drivers on the exit of Turn 1 during his rise to 11th in the opening race – the first time he’s finished outside the points in FIA F3. Sargeant, who had labelled his machine as “undriveable” in qualifying, dropped one position to finish sixth and draw level with Piastri in the points. Pourchaire had the most impressive run of the three serious title contenders as he passed Sargeant twice en route to third from seventh on the grid.
It was the other Prema driver, Frederik Vesti, who continued his late-season charge with his second successive Saturday victory after overhauling the HWA Racelab car of Jake Hughes, who lacked straight-line speed and had no answer to the Drs-assisted Vesti on the run to Turn 1. Vesti had the move done before the braking zone but Hughes, competing in his final F3 weekend, was able to boldly drive around the outside of the Dane on the penultimate lap at the Turn 1 right-hander. Unfortunately for Hughes, he was once again powerless to defend from Vesti on the main straight on the last lap.
Vesti beat Hughes to the flag by 0.3 seconds, with Pourchaire pipping Lirim Zendeli for third, which allowed him to move within nine points of the leading Prema pair. With Zendeli claiming fastest lap, that dropped Vesti out of the picture for the title.
Pourchaire would quickly become Piastri’s only obstacle to the FIA F3 title when Sargeant was wiped out on the opening
lap of Sunday’s reversed-grid race in a collision with Zendeli. Piastri and Pourchaire ran nose to tail in seventh and eighth when the safety car was called to recover the stricken cars. Pourchaire passed Piastri on the restart and began charging to the podium positions, while Piastri slipped back to 10th .
Pourchaire passed team-mate Sebastian Fernandez into Turn 1 with six laps to go, and for the briefest of moments the Frenchman was set to clinch the title on countback. But moments later Piastri passed Pourchaire’s team-mate Alexander Smolyar at the same corner to move into ninth and the odds swung back in his favour.
Red Bull junior Liam Lawson was untouchable out front and David Beckmann – who like Lawson had dropped out of title contention the day before – was a safe second, with Pourchaire third. Meanwhile, Piastri improved to seventh, edging Fernandez to the line by just 0.043s.
A perfect blend of brilliant racecraft and resilience makes Piastri a worthy champion. He may have failed to qualify on the front row, but his supreme judgement and elbows-out style more than made up for his single-lap speed deficit.