Oscar Piastri within reach of FIA Formula 2 title after race two victory in Jeddah
Oscar Piastri is just inches away from clinching the FIA Formula 2 title after taking his fourth victory of the 2021 season in race two at Jeddah.
Oscar Piastri celebrates with his PREMA Racing team after winning in Jeddah. (Formula Motorsport Limited)
Red Bull junior Jehan Daruvala started the second reverse-grid race on pole position after a post-race penalty in race one dropped him to tenth in the final results.
Daruvala led away well from second-place Bent Viscaal at the start, with Viscaal falling into the clutches of Oscar Piastri and Christian Lundgaard.
The chase was on, with Piastri off into the Arabian night after Daruvala for a valuable points haul towards his championship tilt, but the race was neutralised after heavy contact further back in the pack.
Clément Novalak hit the inside wall on pit straight, spearing into turn one in a four-car collision that took out Alessio Deledda and kiwi race-one winner Marcus Armstrong.
Meanwhile, Alessio Deledda and Guilherme Samaia seemed to have their own incident on the outside of turn one, making it a four-car recovery effort after the first lap.
At the restart Piastri charged after Daruvala, and Felipe Drugovich stole seventh from Juri Vips.
The Red Bull junior, who finished third in the round opener earlier in the day, was keen to recover the position, but got too close to Drugovich and lost his front wing, retiring from the race and bringing out the safety car once again.
Oscar Piastri leads the FIA Formula 2 field in Jeddah. (Formula Motorsport Limited)
At the next restart, the battle was on once again for the lead, with Daruvala running wide through the turn one-two chicane ahead of Piastri.
Daruvala was handed a five-second penalty for his efforts, giving Piastri the effective lead of the race, but the Australian was not satisfied and looked to make the move on track.
Piastri made the move through turn one and set about building a healthy lead of 1.5s ahead of the penalised Daruvala, with the race coming to an end as Liam Lawson spun into the barrier at turn 13 with two laps remaining.
Piastri took the race win ahead of Bent Viscaal and Robert Shwartzman.
"A very good race," said the PREMA Racing driver.
"I knew that Jehan had a five-second penalty, but I wanted to get past him on the track and it felt good to win it on track."
"He was really quick at the beginning until he locked up at a re-start."
"I knew his tyres were going to be pretty wrecked after that"
"I waited, knowing he had a five-second penalty, because I still wanted to pass him on track, as I knew I was quicker, and two points for the fastest lap would have been nice."
"Eventually, I made it and took P1 and the bonus points."
"To get the extra points for the fastest lap is an added bonus too."
"It was a good race and hopefully, we can repeat it tomorrow.”
Jack Doohan finished fifth after a spirited charge through the field on his first ever Formula 2 race weekend.
Piastri holds a 47-point advantage in the series standings over teammate Robert Shwartzman, who moved up into second place after his podium in Jeddah.
The Australian could take out his third championship in three years in the feature race on Sunday, with one round remaining in the 2021 FIA Formula 2 season.
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