Advantage Piastri as Formula 2 lands in Sochi for round six of the 2021 F2 Championship

Oscar Piastri’s crucial pole position and victory in the Feature Race extended his gap to 15 points at the top of the Drivers’ Standings.

The Aussie capitalised on a late Safety Car in the last race of the weekend which halted the progress of the charging Dan Ticktum on the fresher soft tyres.

Both Prema cars of Piastri and Robert Shwartzman have been fantastic, but to see a rookie at the top of the championship is quite the shock.

However, the 2020 F3 champion has proved his capabilities, and with the helping hand from former Formula 1 driver Mark Webber, the Australian stepped on the top step of the podium once more in Monza securing his first Feature Race victory in F2.

Before Piastri’s win in the Feature Race came two Sprint Races that gave a lot of excitement to the fans in the grandstands and the ones watching at home.

Starting from pole position, David Beckmann failed to capitalise on this opportunity not once but twice as he was first on the grid in both Sprint Races.

Off the line, the German was poor which allowed Juri Vips to take the lead of the race early on in race one. The Hitech driver also failed to capitalise as a hectic race saw Theo Pourchaire win ahead of Guanyu Zhou in second and Christian Lundgaard in third with the Dane making the rostrum after starting the race in 19th.

Beckmann once more line up on pole for race two and his lead was snatched into turn one as Jehan Daruvala controlled the race from that point onwards. The Indian driver was joined on the podium by Bent Viscaal who scored Trident’s first-ever podium after he finished second with Shwartzman in third.

Pole-sitter Piastri then claimed the Feature Race win with his championship rival, Zhou, finishing second and Ticktum coming home in third.

Moving into this weekend’s Russian Grand Prix at the Sochi Autodrom. This circuit has been ever-present Formula 1 event for the last seven years with Formula 2 adding the track to their calendar in 2018.

Nyck de Vries qualified on pole position after a blistering lap saw him out-qualify second place Lando Norris by over two-tenths and third place George Russell by over three-tenths.

However, the Dutchman failed to capitalise on his fantastic start position as he finished third with Alex Albon and Nicholas Latifi completing a DAMS one-two.

Russell was on the top step of the podium after the Sprint Race as he made his way up to first from fifth. Sergio Sette Camara and Alexander Albon completed the rosterum.

In last year’s event at Sochi, the two Carlin’s of Yuki Tsunoda had a very successful qualifying as the former out-qualified the latter by six-thousandths with Mick Schumacher in third.

The now AlphaTauri driver failed to secure a lights to flag victory as the charging Prema of Schumacher was victorious with Tsunoda finishing second and Callum Ilott in third.

Guanyu Zhou secured the win during the Sprint Race that was over after only five laps due to a collision between Jack Aitken and Luca Ghiotto. Nikita Mazepin and Schumacher completed the podium as the points finishers scored half points.

All eyes will be on the Prema of Piastri and the UNI-Virtuosi of Zhou as the duo look to go head-to-head once more around the Sochi Autodrom.

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