Oscar Piastri takes the championship lead at the British Grand Prix

Oscar Piastri leads the drivers' standings after the fourth round of the FIA Formula 2 Championship. The 20-year-old Prema driver had an outstanding weekend at the British Grand Prix, securing his first pole position in F2®.

Piastri's weekend got off to a strong start, with the Australian putting his car on pole in the qualifying session with a lap time of 1:39.854.

"Pole in Silverstone! It's been a while since my last one, but I'm super happy. I think we had the pace all day today, we were really strong in practice as well as in qualy obviously. I'm glad that my first run was good enough because I made a big mistake with the second set of tyres.

Now we have to fight back from P10 in race 1, but we're on pole for the feature race, which is what we're here for," Piastri spoke after the qualifying session.

In the first sprint race of the weekend, Piastri finished in sixth place after starting P10 on the grid. He also secured two bonus points for the fastest lap, which promoted him to the top of the drivers' Championship.

The second sprint race saw Piastri start in fifth place and cross the line fourth, securing the extra two points for the fastest lap.

"I’m very happy with today’s results as we were strong in both races and all conditions. In race one I had a quick start and made a few spots straight away, and then got past Lawson to take P6. After that, we were just stuck in a DRS train and I couldn’t really make any more progress forward. In race two, I had a pretty average start but made a good move towards the end to take P4. The pace was mega in clean air so I could set the fastest lap in both races. I don’t think there was really much more we could have done today. Bring on tomorrow!” said Piastri.

#BritishGP 🇬🇧 #F2 pic.twitter.com/fOBfT1WCYF

— Oscar Piastri (@OscarPiastri) July 18, 2021

Piastri would go on to start the feature race as the championship leader and did so alongside his championship rival and fellow Alpine Academy driver, Guanyu Zhou.

It was Zhou who got off to the better start, with Piastri having to settle for P2. The pit window had opened six laps into the race, with those on the softer tyres opting to change to the hard compound tyre. Piastri pitted a lap later than Dan Ticktum, and although he came out of the pits ahead, lost the position to the British driver who had warmed his tyres up.

The race continued to throw up challenges for the Melbournian driver after getting stuck behind Matteo Nannini for a large portion of the race before the Italian pitted on lap 25.

Richard Verschoor had been able to close the gap on Piastri and pushed the Aussie through to the end of the race.

“We got P3 in the feature race, which was a difficult one. Unfortunately, we just didn’t have the same pace that we had yesterday. When we caught Nannini in the middle of the race, we didn’t have the pace to pass him, which was surprising and rather disappointing”, Piastri said after the race.

“Even after that, the final laps put my defensive skills to test. We still scored solid points, walked away with another trophy and the championship lead, so overall it has been a great weekend. Not the way we wanted to end it, but we showed well what we are truly capable of, and I want to thank the team for all their work.”

The Championship view

Piastri has the Drivers’ Championship lead at the halfway point of the season, with 108 points. Zhou is up to second with 103, with Shwartzman in third on 91. Ticktum is fourth with 89 and Vips fifth with 85.

In the Teams’ Championship, PREMA Racing is first with 199, ahead of UNI-Virtuosi in second on 162 and Carlin in third on 145. Hitech Grand Prix is fourth with 143, ahead of ART Grand Prix on 93.

What’s next?

The Championship heads into a summer break with a new leader in Oscar Piastri, but Zhou will be determined to return to the top when action resumes in Monza, 10-12 September.