Formula 2®: Oscar Piastri sits atop the standings

As the drivers reach the midway point for the summer break, we thought we would look back at how the first four race weekends have gone.

The FIA Formula 2 Championship™ has seen the likes of George Russell, Lando Norris, and Charles Leclerc forge strong careers in F1® in recent years. In fact, three of the past four F2® Champions have graduated into F1®. So drivers in the current Championship would completely understand what can happen if they have a solid F2® showing.

This bodes well for Australian Oscar Piastri of Prema Racing, who currently sits atop the current season's standings with 108 points.

Guanyu Zhou (Uni-Virtuosi) is in second place with 103 points, and Piastri's teammate in Robert Shwartzman is in third with 91 points.

So far, the Championship has been to Bahrain, Monaco, Azerbaijan and Great Britain.

OSCAR PIASTRI - PREMA RACING

The 20-year-old from Victoria, Australia, currently leads the FIA Formula 2 Championship™ after picking up solid points in each of the four race weekends this season.

The success shown in his F2® debut year continues his stellar form from the previous series he competed in. In 2019, Piastri was champion of Formula Renault before moving to F3® in 2020 and winning that championship by three points.

One of Oscar’s strengths this season has to be his consistency in scoring points. He has scored points in 10 of the 12 races, putting him in rare company. Only Carlin driver Dan Ticktum has achieved this, and he is sitting fourth in the standings.

It wasn’t an immediate rise to the top of the leaderboard either for Piastri. In Bahrain, the Australian picked up his first F2® race win in Sprint Race 2. However, what was looking to be another race win in the Featured Race, turned to heartbreak on lap 30 when the battle between him and Ticktum resulted in Piastri spinning off the track.

In Monaco and Azerbaijan, Piastri finished second in each of the Feature Races. After two further solid weekends and a tough weekend for the then-current Championship leader, Zhou, Piastri was only a few points from first in the standings.

Round 4 saw Piastri have his best weekend in the championships, scoring 35-points and taking the lead of the standings. After qualifying fastest, it was clear that Piastri was a real threat to the Championship battle. He finished 6^th in Sprint Race 1, 4^th in Sprint Race 2 and 3^rd in the Feature Race.

“If I do have a successful year this year and if I do manage to win the championship, then that will be three [championships] in a row. I don’t really know what more I could do than that.”

If the first half of the season is anything to go by, Piastri will feature heavily in the points in the second half of the year.

UPON RETURN

Drivers will return to Monza, Italy on 10-12 September.

They will then round out the season in Russia, Saudi Arabia and finishing in the United Arab Emirates.