PREMA Racing spectacularly took their second consecutive Feature Race win as another FIA Formula 2 weekend drew to a close.
Piastri claimed victory during the final race in Sochi after keeping the lead from pole position and gaining a gap early on to prevent any DRS moves.
After changing his supersoft tyres for the softs, the Australian made short work of the traffic to maintain an effective first place, before retaking the lead once everyone had pitted.
Today’s win, Piastri’s third of the year, saw him extend his lead in the championship to 36 points with just two rounds left of the season.
Piastri said: “I’m very happy with our second Feature Race win.
“It was a tough race; I had Pourchaire behind me the whole time and really had to push the whole way to keep him there.
“It was fun even with a lot of pressure, but I’m very happy to have converted the pole to another win and increased the championship lead, which is even better.”
Piastri’s PREMA teammate, Robert Shwartzman, also had a good race with a fourth-place finish as he claimed more points for the championship, finishing ahead of some of his rivals.
The Russian made a clean start and moved up from seventh on the grid.
He was put on the back foot in the final run as he had a slow pit stop to avoid an unsafe release, but he managed to bounce back to claim fourth.
Shwartzman said: “We finished the weekend in Sochi with P3 and P4. Generally, not a bad weekend, but not good enough.
“My target is to fight for the championship, and again we didn’t manage to score the points we need to close the gap to Oscar.
“I’m a bit disappointed with that, and I think that the main issue was qualifying which compromised everything.
“Today, the start was good. I gained two positions, and I didn’t want to risk too much with so many cars side by side.
“Then I was P5, in the queue, and with the option tyres, the car was quite challenging.
“At the pit-stop, there was traffic, and the team could not release me, so we lost a few seconds there, which could have helped us to fight for the podium.
“In the second part of the race, the pace was growing step by step. We got Boschung, using a mistake of his to pass.
“In the end, I was behind Daruvala, but I didn’t have enough pace to attack him. We scored decent points, and the championship is still on, but we need to improve in Saudi Arabia.”
With another win and a good haul of points for the championship, PREMA Racing solidified their lead in the teams’ championship heading into the final stint in the Middle East.
Image: Formula Motorsport Ltd
