It was a positive Qualifying for PREMA in Monaco, as Robert Shwartzman will line up second and Oscar Piastri third for the Feature Race on Saturday.
Shwartzman won a nail-biting battle for first in his group after trading places with UNI-Virtuosi’s Guanyu Zhou and Carlin’s Dan Ticktum. Since Group A’s Théo Pourchaire set the fastest time overall, the Ferrari Academy driver will start the Feature Race alongside him on front row. Meanwhile, Piastri will take off from right behind Pourchaire’s ART.
Shwartzman said: “It has been a quite decent quali, but I have still mixed feelings. I didn’t manage to put a proper lap together, which I was dreaming about, but it was a good lap anyways.
“I made some mistakes, but it’s P1 in the group and P2 overall, so a pretty solid position for the start. Now it is important to gain some experience in the first two races and then in the third race just do a proper start, gain the lead, keep a good pace and hopefully, we’ll have a chance to win.”
Piastri said: “I’m pretty happy with P3 in qualifying here at Monaco, a bit better than Bahrain, which is nice. The team did a really good job obviously with Robert on top in his group and me P2 in mine.
“The main aim of the weekend was to qualify at the front, and we are situated there. Now we just need to keep our nose clean, hopefully raking the points and … have fun!”
Due to the reverse grid format, Shwartzman will start the first Sprint Race on Friday morning from ninth, while team mate Piastri will start eighth.
Image Credit: © Prema Racing
