Oscar Piastri claims fourth and fifth victory in Jeddah
Monday, 6 December 2021
The Australian leaves with a 51.5-point lead in the standings.
PREMA Racing's Oscar Piastri has come away from the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix with a pole position, and two race wins – extending his lead in the standings to 51.5 points.
The Australian went into the penultimate round of the season knowing he had a strong lead in the championship and needed to collect as many points as possible and not give any away with moves that didn't need to be made.
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After qualifying fastest – and securing the four points that come with it – Piastri made it very clear to his nearest rivals that it wouldn't be easy to topple him from the top of the leaderboard. In doing so, he became just the second driver to take four Formula 2® poles in a row.
Piastri secured his fourth win in Sprint Race 2 after edging out Jehan Daruvala in the race's final stages. Fellow Australian Jack Doohan also scored his first points in F2® in the second race, finishing fifth.
"A very good race. I knew that Jehan (Daruvala) had a five-second penalty, but I wanted to get past him on the track and it felt good to win it on track. To get the extra points for the fastest lap is an added bonus too," Piastri said.
The Feature Race was delayed due to a barrier repair occurring, and when it did eventually get underway, it was red-flagged due to a nasty collision on the start line. Théo Pourchaire appeared to stall, and Enzo Fittipaldi couldn't avoid the Frenchman.
The pair's crash led to a lengthy stoppage, after which the race was shortened to 20 minutes plus one lap, with one mandatory pitstop and half points.
Piastri hung onto first place after a rolling start, ahead of Robert Shwartzman and Ralph Boschung. There was little movement in the top 10, but Dan Ticktum did manage to pass his Carlin teammate Jehan Daruvala, who slid down to 11th behind the British driver and Liam Lawson.
Four laps were completed when the field began to feed into the pits for a change of tyre, but Guilherme Samaia and Olli Caldwell collided and brought out a Safety Car. The pair both clambered out of their cars, but a Red Flag followed, and it was swiftly confirmed that the race would not be restarted.
That meant that Piastri picked up his fifth win of the season, ahead of his teammate Shwartzman – the double podium enough to win PREMA the Teams' title. Boschung finished third for his first podium at this level.
Piastri was delighted to collect the points: "We won the race if you want to call it a race. The points are nice and I am glad that everybody is going to be okay, from the crash. That is the most important thing today and we will see you next week for the final round."
PREMA Racing has won the Teams' championship, ahead of Carlin in second UNI-Virtuosi in third.
The teams will move on to the final race of the season at Yas Marina, which will take place next weekend.
