Oscar Piastri has enjoyed his equal best result for the 2024 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season after finishing the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix 2024 in fourth place.

The Victorian started the race from fifth following one of his best Qualifying performances in Formula 1, which saw him secure a front row place before receiving a three-place grid penalty for an incident with Kevin Magnussen.

The start of the race at Imola proved quite frustrating for Piastri, who was stuck behind Carlos Sainz for much of the opening stint until he was brought into the pits on lap 24.

The move to undercut Sainz paid massive dividends as Piastri came out in P8 behind Stroll before producing a number of good laps in the crucial period to pass Stroll and Sergio Perez and close in on Charles Leclerc.

While Sainz ended up coming out behind Piastri once he pitted, unfortunately the Aussie wasn’t able to pass the second Ferrari of Leclerc, eventually falling further behind before settling for fourth place.

Ahead of him, Max Verstappen held off a late charge from Lando Norris to take out his fifth race win of the season, while Leclerc secured Ferrari’s first podium at Imola since Michael Schumacher won the race in 2006. 

Further down the order, Daniel Ricciardo missed out on scoring points at Imola having finished in 13th – four places lower than where he began the race.

Like Piastri, the West Australian had a brilliant qualifying run in Qualifying, making it to Q3 and finishing the session in ninth place, only to lose multiple places at the start of Sunday’s Grand Prix.

From that point onwards, Ricciardo was unable to make up any ground on the top 10 as he lost the opportunity to score points to Sergio Perez midway through the 63-lap affair before losing a couple of places late in the race.

Also taking place at Imola was the FIA Formula 3 Championship, where Christian Mansell and Tommy Smith were flying the Aussie flag.

Unfortunately neither driver could score points during the two races, with Mansell producing the better results of the two, qualifying in P15 before gaining three places in the Sprint Race. The feature race was less successful after the New South Welshman lost five places to cross the line in 20th.

As for Smith, his best result also came in the sprint race – reaching the chequered flag in 24th before dropping to P27 in the feature race.

It’s back to back weekends for both the FIA Formula 1 World Championship and Formula 3 with the iconic Monaco Grand Prix in Monte Carlo on 24-26 May.