The first round of the FIA Formula 3 Championship has wrapped up in Austria with Australian drivers starring in the return to race.
The main highlight of the weekend came in Saturday’s race where Oscar Piastri took out a commanding win on debut and Alex Peroni secured a maiden podium in his second season in the championship.
Both drivers showed their pace throughout the 24-laps, as Piastri took the lead early and held onto it for the whole race, while Peroni grabbed four spots and the fastest lap after starting in seventh.
Following a dramatic start, where Piastri made contact with polesitter Sebastián Fernández, the Melburnian never looked back and claimed top step of the podium in the opening race of the revised season.
"Winning the first race is a great start to the year," Piastri said post-race one.
"It was very scary at turn one at the start, and I thought that it was going to be race over 10 seconds into my debut, but thankfully I got through that and made a good move on Zendeli into turn three.”
"Then, I just controlled it from there. The tyre degradation was a bit more than we were expecting and halfway into the race I was struggling a bit with the rears. Logan Sargeant was catching me and bringing the train with him, so I had to stay on my toes."
It was a much tougher affair in Sunday’s reverse grid race with Piastri only able to move up two places and finish eighth, although there was some consolation for the 19-year-old as he claimed bonus points for posting the fastest lap.
Peroni on the other hand was quickly brought back down to the earth after a memorable Saturday, with the Tasmanian retiring midway through Sunday’s race due to mechanical issues.
It was a similar fate for Jack Doohan, who also failed to finish after placing a gallant 14th in race one, while Calan Williams was able to improve on his 21st from Saturday with a well deserved 17th on Sunday.
Race two’s winner may be familiar to some Australians with 2017 Australian Formula 4 Championship runner-up Liam Lawson beating Richard Verschoora and Clément Novalak to the chequered flag.
With the New Zealander receiving 15 points for his reverse grid race victory, Piastri still ends the round at the top of the championship standings, seven points ahead of Lawson.
Austria’s Red Bull Ring will once again host the FIA Formula 3 Championship’s second round, which takes places in less than a week on 10-12 July.