A bold pit call has led to a remarkable win for Australian teenager Oscar Piastri at the season-opening Formula Two event in Bahrain.
Competing in his debut event in the Formula One development category, Piastri made the first pit stop of his racing career during a late safety car in Saturday’s 23-lap race two.
Emerging in ninth position with fresh tyres, Piastri scorched through the field over the remaining six laps, passing Chinese driver Guanyu Zhou for the lead at the start of the final lap.
Piastri then held off Zhou and Dane Christian Lundgaard to cap a sensational win having started the race in sixth.
“That has to be the craziest race win I’ve ever had in my life,” the 19-year-old Melbourne product said.
“We struggled during the first half of the race on hard tyres and, to be honest, I wasn’t driving good enough, still getting used to the grip change we had from the earlier race.
“Full credit to PREMA (team), they called ‘box’ and I did my first ever pit stop. That was pretty daunting, and I pulled off a few good moves at the end and here we are on the top step.”
Zhou finished second with India’s Jehan Daruvala third.
Lundgaard received a 10-second penalty for an earlier incident in the race to drop down the order.
Daruvala leads the championship by one point from Piastri after two of the opening round’s three races, with the final race to take place on Sunday night AEDT.
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