Frederik Vesti handed PREMA Racing a positive fourth place at Melbourne as the FIA Formula 2 Feature Race wrapped up the first Australian round of the series.

Starting from P13, the Dane delivered a hard-fought run. And while the strategy of staying out with Prime tyres at the beginning was jeopardized by an initial safety-car situation while he was leading, a second disruption meant that he could make a stop and minimize the time lost. By doing so, he was able to rejoin in P5, before battling his way to P4 and starting a thorough chase for a podium finish. Finishing fourth with the fastest lap of the race, he kept himself in full championship contention.

Teammate Ollie Bearman had a more complicated day. Starting from P6, he had contact early, which later got him penalized, and was also clipped in the pit-lane. That led to a punctured tyre that basically sealed his fate considering that he had to run most of the race with the softer option rubber.

7 FREDERIK VESTI

“”It was a solid race. We were a bit unlucky at the beginning with strategy, but then the luck came back to us at the end when we were able to put the options. Then the crash put me into the top-5, and I went for a move for P4. I was fighting hard for the podium, but I didn’t arrive, but nevertheless, we went from P13 to P4, and I’m very happy with that. We recovered from what started as a very bad weekend, and it became an average-good weekend. We have to keep working, we are back in the fight. We have some time off now, and we’ll be back in Baku.”

Qualifying: P13
Starting Position Race 1: P13
Starting Position Race 2: P13
Fastest Lap: 1:46.899
Race 1: P8
Race 2: P4

8 OLLIE BEARMAN

“Difficult race. It was going quite well, up until the first pit stop, when unfortunately we got a bit caught in the mess, and I got a puncture when we went to prime tyres, so I had to box straight away for the options. Of course, trying to complete the whole race on options is not ideal. Eventually, we lost some pace, and the penalties were not ideal as well. Still, we can be happy with the performance, and hopefully, we can start putting it together for Baku.”

Qualifying: P6
Starting Position Race 1: P5
Starting Position Race 2: P6
Fastest Lap: 1:46.058
Race 1: P7
Race 2: P17

Source | Photo: PREMA Racing