Oscar Piastri was once again back at the front in the 2017 F4 British Championship certified by FIA – powered by Ford EcoBoost meeting at Silverstone.
The 16-year-old Aussie single-seater ace dominated qualifying, recording his third double pole of the season by a staggering 0.2s and 0.4s on the short Silverstone National circuit layout.
He then went on to take the HP Tuners backed Arden Motorsport car to podium positions in every race, including another lights to flag win in Sunday’s feature race, bringing his tally to 6 wins and 15 podiums for the season.
“It was great to get back to the front again after the nightmare of Rockingham. The car, the engine and the team performed flawlessly”, said Piastri.
“Race one didn’t quite go to plan as there was some confusion about being allowed to do burnouts to heat the rear tyres on the formation lap. Being the pole man, I thought I followed the briefing instructions correctly and my rear tyres were very cold on the line which gave me a lot of wheelspin. I lost one place in the opening lap and was under a lot of pressure until my tyres came up to temperature.
“When the rain came in the last couple of laps, Jamie Caroline sent it up the inside and spun right in front of me which let York through into second place. I still managed P3 which was less than I wanted, but a podium nonetheless.”
The reverse grid race saw Piastri start in P6 and gain three places to finish on the podium again in third after working through some traffic and avoiding an incident.
“The reverse grid races are tough. The front two rows always put their new tyres on giving them a speed advantage for most of the race. Also, there’s usually a higher risk of contact amongst out of position cars in the first few laps and you need to be careful where you position the car.”
Sundays feature race was all Piastri, starting from pole and driving away from the rest of the field to win by almost 4 seconds.
“Race three was perfect. I got a great start and got into a rhythm early. I didn’t really feel challenged at all by Jamie so I was able to build a gap and keep pulling away during the whole race. The car speed is a real credit to the team, the close analysis of the data and video, and the work we’ve done in testing during the year.”
“I’ve outscored Jamie at every round since Oulton Park, except for Rockingham, so I’m really pleased with the progress I’ve made in my first real season in cars and on these tracks I’ve never raced on before. We’re all really happy that we will take the fight to the last round of the championship at Brands Hatch GP.”