R03 Baku – FIA Formula 2 Race 3 Report
PREMA Racing wrapped up an extremely positive weekend at Baku with a double podium finish in the FIA Formula 2 Championship feature race at the Azerbaijani venue.
Starting from P3, Oscar Piastri posted a brilliant second place. The Australian maximized his position in the early stages of the race with some razor-sharp moves, and stayed clear of the many incidents and mishaps that happened out front. Despite suffering from a 5-second unsafe release penalty after his pit-stop, his pace was fast enough to retain P2 and end up right behind the eventual race winner.
Russian teammate Robert Shwartzman finished behind him and delivered a great recovery from 10th place on the grid, setting a strong and consistent pace that secured him his second podium finish of the weekend following yesterday’s race 1 win. Shwartzman is now back in full contention for the driver championship lead, sitting third behind Piastri.
The combination of their efforts made sure for PREMA Racing to reclaim the lead of the team championship. The series now goes for a break before getting back for round 4 at Silverstone.
#1 ROBERT SHWARTZMAN
“Quite a decent start, but I wasn’t going to risk much so I lost one place to Drugovich, but I got it back after the safety-car restart. I had a pretty good pace but several cars in front of me. We went to the pit lane one lap after the drivers in front. It wasn’t ideal because my rears were already gone, but the pit stop itself was good and I was P4 out of the pit-lane. I tried to overtake Boschung as quick as possible and after I got him I was P3. I kept my pace, I went easy with the tyres in case of the safety-car because the gap was pretty big. It was going to be very challenging to catch the guys in front. The safety car didn’t come and the final stages were pretty normal. We ended up P3 which is very solid points finally after two unfortunate weekends. Now we are back really competitive, and we want to fully prepare for Silverstone.”
Qualifying: P10
Starting Grid Race 1: P1
Starting Grid Race 2: P10
Starting Grid Race 3: P10
Fastest Lap: 1’55″161
Race 1: P1
Race 2: P5
Race 2: P3
#2 OSCAR PIASTRI
“P2 in the feature race, I’m happy with that. I think we didn’t quite have the pace to match Juri today, but we got good points, another trophy. We have been a bit lucky with the 5-second penalty, not doing anything in the end. I think the pace was strong, another solid weekend in terms of what we could control. I’m happy with how it went and now we will enjoy the break before Silverstone.”
Qualifying: P3
Starting Grid Race 1: P8
Starting Grid Race 2: P19
Starting Grid Race 2: P3
Fastest Lap: 1’54″108
Race 1: DNF
Race 2: P8
Race 3: P2
Source | Photo: PREMA Racing