Oscar Piastri closed in on British Formula 4 championship rival Jamie Caroline with a pair of wins at Snetterton. Caroline cancelled out Piastri’s race one win with victory in the reverse grid race, but Piastri bounced back in the final race of the weekend.
Piastri began his domination in qualifying, where he took pole for the first and final race at Snetterton. He went on to lead from lights to flag in the first race, leading team-mate Ayrton Simmons to an Arden 1-2.
The Australian built up a gap to Simmons, who spent the race defending against Logan Sargeant and Linus Lundqvist. Simmons kept the position to take his first podium since his win at the start of the season.
Lundqvist took third after passing Sargeant, who was running on old tyres, late in the race.
After a disappointing qualifying, Caroline started the race eighth. He made up a position on the opening lap, but he fell back behind Oliver York before the chequered flag.
An eighth place finish earned Caroline second on the reverse grid alongside Manuel Sulaiman. A strong start promoted the championship leader to the race lead, and he quickly built up a gap to York and Alex Quinn, who were battling for second.
Further down the field, Hampus Ericsson and Karl Maassaad came together. Maassaad leaked fluid over the track and race control sent out the safety car, eliminating Caroline’s lead.
Ericsson was later excluded for causing the collision.
Caroline quickly pulled away from York on the restart, setting the fastest lap of the race on his way to the chequered flag and a record breaking ninth victory of the season.
York took second, ahead of Quinn.
Starting ninth, Piastri climbed up through the field to finish seventh.
On pole again for the final race of the weekend, Piastri took another lights to flag victory but spent the majority of the 11 laps defending against Logan Sargeant.
Piastri made a poor start, but a battle for second behind him allowed the Arden driver to stay ahead. Sargeant and Lundqvist were both trying to find their way past Simmons on the opening lap when contact sent Simmons off track and down the order.
Sargeant quickly caught up with Piastri, whilst a gearbox problem for Lundqvist meant the Double R Racing driver fell away from the lead fight. Piastri defended well against Sargeant and finished just two tenths of a second ahead of the Carlin driver.
“The battle was certainly tough,” he told Overtake Motorsport.
“Sargeant was really strong off the last corner, down the front straight. I had to defend pretty hard on turn one and then that made me vulnerable through turn two as well.
“I certainly had to work hard to keep him behind me.”
Sargeant’s second place finish moves him ahead of Alex Quinn to fourth in the championship order.
Lundqvist took third, ahead of Simmons, who recovered from seventh after the opening lap incident.
After starting ninth, Caroline finished seventh.
Piastri is now 46.5 points behind Caroline going into the final four rounds of the championship.
Image credit: Caroline Rhea
