PREMA Racing team-mates Oscar Piastri and Logan Sargeant are locked in the tightest of battles for the lead of the FIA Formula 3 Championship after round five at Silverstone over the weekend, August 7-9.

Off the back of a non-finish last Sunday due to a DRS failure, Piastri had hoped to bounce back with a vengeance. However, technical gremlins continued to hamper the Renault Sport Academy driver’s car and although Piastri was able to salvage valuable points in both races, a win for Sargeant in the first race of the weekend has put the American one point ahead of the Australian.

Friday’s practice and qualifying were a blow for Piastri after his car ground to a halt on-track on no less than three occasions. He only managed one lap in practice before he lost power and although his team did everything they could to trace and fix the electrical problem, it was to resurface again in qualifying.

Despite his lack of track time, Piastri showed good speed at the start of the 30 mins session, posting the second fastest time behind Sargeant. However, the times improved on the next flying lap, first Jake Hughes setting the pace before Piastri (1min 45.877s) and then Sargeant topped the times. The field returned to the pits for their second set of tyres but Piastri didn’t even get that far when he lost power and stopped in pit lane entry.

After several worrying minutes, he made it back but despite PREMA’s best efforts to get him back out, the elusive problem reared its ugly head again, this time before Oscar could set a timed lap. His stoppage caused the session to be red-flagged and when it got going again with only minutes to spare, the young Australian could only sit and watch as his earlier time was eclipsed by those closest to him in the championship. Nevertheless, it was still good enough for 11th fastest but it was Sargeant who claimed pole and with it the extra four points.

“Not the greatest day. Practice was a disaster, while qualifying was slightly better, at least I got a lap in. I felt very good after the first laps and I was still getting all my references, so I thought I could have done a good job with the second set of tyres. Unfortunately, the car broke down coming to the pitlane.”

With Sargeant on pole, Saturday’s 20 lap feature race was always going to be about damage limitation for Piastri. However, it did not bode well when the seemingly inherent electrical problem struck again on the lap to the grid. There were a few nervous faces on the grid around the HP Tuners-backed car but at the lights Piastri got away smartly. It took a few laps for the mid-field order to settle, with Oscar up into 10th before passing Clement Novalak and Lirim Zendeli and into eighth.

Once he had broken Zendeli’s tow, Piastri narrowed the gap to Theo Pourchaire and Bent Viscaal in the battle for sixth. With five laps remaining, Pourchaire went deep into Luffield which allowed Viscaal through and Piastri was all over Pourchaire down the national straight but unable to pull off a move. Viscaal went wide as he defended his position a lap later and both Pourchaire and Piastri were through in a flash. The two were nose to tail on the penultimate lap but extreme defending by Pourchaire meant that Piastri had to settle for seventh and six points.

Up front, Sargeant took his first win of the season to assume the overnight lead in the championship by six points over Piastri.

“Seventh place is not bad. We managed to finish the session after some earlier issues this weekend. The pace was strong at the start, just a bit difficult in the DRS train as normal. We have a good starting spot for tomorrow, and we will have a good opportunity to fight for the win.”

Indeed, from fourth on the grid a podium finish looked within grasp but unfortunately a tough first sector saw Oscar shuffled down the order to seventh position after the opening lap. The race ran under the Safety Car for five laps, effectively meaning it was then a 15-lap sprint to the chequered flag.

Back to racing, Oscar got nicely inside of Liam Lawson at Club but the Kiwi kept his foot in and took Piastri clean off the track. He was able to re-join but had slipped behind Jake Hughes. He spent the rest of the race trying to find a way back past the British driver amid a big train of cars battling for third, all the while defending from Fredrik Vesti large in his mirrors. He finally made the move on Hughes on lap 19 to take sixth place at the flag.

“Not the greatest of races. I lost quite a few spots early, then gained a couple back before the end so I finished P6. It wasn’t really what I was hoping for coming into today, but we did a decent job of damage limitation given the issues we had. I’m looking forward to getting to Barcelona.”

After Silverstone’s double-feast of action, the FIA Formula 3 Championship moves to Spain next weekend (August 14-16) when Barcelona hosts round six.

Images © Prema Powerteam