Sacred Piastri, Pourchaire vice-champion

A year after winning the Formula Renault Eurocup, Oscar Piastri (Prema) is crowned FIA Formula 3 world champion by three points ahead of Frenchman Théo Pourchaire (ART Grand Prix), author of another exceptional weekend.

Published on 13/09/2020 à 11:43

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Sacred Piastri, Pourchaire vice-champion

Oscar piastri is crowned world champion Formula 3 ! The Australian driver, member of Team Prema, succeeds Robert Shwartzman on the list of winners, after his 7th place in a race 2 won by Liam Lawson (Hitech) Sunday. However, the Australian driver was off to a bad start before this race, since he started from 11th place and Logan sargeant, his teammate with whom he was tied for the lead in the championship, started much higher on the grid.

But a clash between the American in the first round and Lirim Zendeli (Trident) ruined his title hopes and immediately gave Piastri back the role of favorite. Nothing was decided yet for the Aussie, since Theo Pourchaire (ART Grand Prix) was only eight points behind in the championship. And the young Frenchman (17 years old), author of an exceptional season, caused him problems until the last loops.

Starting from 8th place, the native of Grasse delivered another superb comeback, as he has been doing almost systematically now for several weeks. On the restart following the Safety Car on the 4th lap, he passed three men, including Piastri, Verschoor and Hughes. He then took on Smolyar (lap 10), Fittipaldi (lap 11) and finally Fernandez, his teammate (lap 14), to take 3rd place.

At that point, Pourchaire was virtually one point behind Piastri in the championship, a few loops from the finish. But the Frenchman was not able to catch David Beckmann (Trident), 2nd. On the finish line, Oscar Piastri passed Sebastian Fernandez (ART Grand Prix) to definitively secure the title. “No, no, no, that’s not possible… well done, and thank you.” Theo reacted with emotion into his radio. The young French wolf was especially disappointed to let the title slip by just three points. But he finished runner-up in the category after an exceptional end to the season.

For his part, Oscar Piastri is once again crowned, a year after winning the Eurocup – already by a narrow margin – against another Frenchman, Victor Martins. As the fair-playing boy that he is, his first words were addressed to his unfortunate teammate Logan Sargeant, to whom he is very close: "I'm so sorry for Logan that it ended like this for him." he said before also congratulating Théo Pourchaire. “I have no doubt that the three of us will continue to fight together in the coming years.”