Australia's Oscar Piastri stuns on debut F2 race weekend

Australian motorsport superstar Oscar Piastri claimed victory in the second sprint race of the opening F2 weekend in Bahrain.

“Holy s***”.

Those were the two words used by young Australian F2 superstar Oscar Piastri as he claimed victory in the second sprint race of the opening weekend at the Bahrain International Circuit.

“That has to be the craziest race win I’ve ever had in my life,” Piastri said.

It capped off a fantastic F2 debut for the 19-year-old after finishing fifth in a thrilling season-opening sprint race before the reigning F3 champion pulled off a marvelous come from behind victory in the second sprint race.

Piastri was one of the few drivers to pit under the safety car which momentarily dropped him down the order.

“We struggled during the first half of the race on hard tyres and to be honest, I wasn’t driving good enough, still getting used to the grip change we had from the earlier race,” he said.

The opportunistic pit stop gave him a massive edge and with a fresh set of tyres, Piastri was able to slice his way through the field and place himself in a great position to win.

Piastri’s climb to victory was helped by Juri Vips who suffered a sudden technical issue only three laps short of the chequered flag.

In what was almost a storybook ending, the contest for pole position heated up on the final lap of the race.

In an epic battle Piastri, Lundgaard and Zhou went three abreast into turn one allowing Piastri to exit the turn in P1, ultimately hanging on to win.

Unfortunately in the final Bahrain feature race, Piastri did not have the same luck.

On lap 13, Piastri collided with Dan Ticktum, knocking him out of the podium spots and ending his weekend.

Despite this mishap, it was an incredible debut for the man who will be eager to continue his good form.

In 2020 Piastri signed on with the Alpine driver academy (nee Renault) and is one of many drivers seemingly placing Esteban Ocon under pressure to keep his seat.

Pressure is mounting on Ocon, who is in the final year of his contract and if results don’t improve it is not unreasonable to think Piastri could follow the likes of Yuki Tsunoda and find himself in an Alpine seat in 2022.

The next round of the Formula 2 Championship gets underway from 13 May in the famous Monte Carlo race.