Piastri storms to opening F3 race win on debut

PREMA Racing’s Oscar Piastri claimed victory in the first race of this year’s FIA Formula 3 Championship at the Red Bull Ring on Saturday morning.

The Australian made a phenomenal start from third on the grid to leapfrog pole-sitter Sebastian Fernandez before the Spaniard was taken out at Turn 1 by the PREMA Racing driver and subsequently retiring in the pits.

Piastri’s charge continued as he completed the perfect opening lap by moving around the outside of Lirim Zendeli into Turn 3 and took the lead for the remainder of the race.

The field settled down from then onwards prior to Logan Sargeant’s move on Alex Peroni for second position on Lap 8.

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The final top ten consisted of Piastri from Sargeant, Peroni and Frederik Vesti in the last of the three PREMAs in fourth. Zendeli was fifth in front of Liam Lawson, David Beckmann, Richard Verschoor, Alex Smolyar and Clement Novalak in tenth place and on reverse-grid pole.

Those positions remained unchanged until the chequered flag, while Alex Peroni bagged the extra two points for the fastest lap.

One of the stand out performances was from Igor Fraga for Charouz Racing System from 30th to 16th but no points were rewarded to the Brazilian.

Piastri therefore takes the early championship lead going into tomorrow’s second race, which gets underway at 08:45 BST.

Result: Formula 3 Feature Race (Top Ten)