Australia’s driver pack was again active overseas on the weekend, with the majority of drivers competing in open-wheelers ranging from Formula One to F4. Here is the rundown of where our drivers shone over Saturday and Sunday.

Formula Regional European Championship – Barcelona

The penultimate round of the Formula European Championship descended on the Catalonian capital of Barcelona where Prema Racing driver Jack Beeton was eager to gain some late-season points.

Overall, Beeton’s weekend was filled with positive performances beginning with both of his qualifying sessions. Beeton was timed at 1:35.799 and 1:56.397 in Qualifying 1 and Qualifying 2 respectively, the fifth-fastest times registered in both sessions.

The strong performances in qualifying resembled Beeton’s efforts in the main races, enjoying an average finishing position of 10th across Race 1 and Race 2. Beeton placed 9th in the first feature race after 20 laps, and then 11th in Race 2 across 18 laps before heavy rain eventually took grip of the Circuit De Barcelona.

Two rounds remain in the Formula Regional European Championship, with Beeton’s next outing scheduled to take place in Hockenheim on 5 October. Beeton improved to 32 points for the season, 12th overall, after picking up two additional points in the first of the weekend’s races.

British F4 – Silverstone

Jimmy Piszyck’s charge for a podium finish in the British F4 Championship for Rodin Motorsport took another step forward with the season again passing through Silverstone. Piszyck managed to clock the sixth-fastest lap time in qualifying to put himself in good stead on the starting grid for the three feature races, meanwhile youngster Xavier Avramides mustered 24th in his qualifying efforts for Hitech TGR.

Piszyck was composed in Race 1 after finishing fourth behind Ary Bansal, Tommy Harfield and eventual winner and championship leader Fionn McLaughlin. In the reverse order grid Race 2 session, Piszyck dropped a few places, but still managed to stay inside the top 10 after finishing eighth.

Piszyck’s best performance came in Race 3, securing another podium with a third-place finish and adding more points to his season total – now at 257 points alongside Hungarian Martin Molnár. Piszyck’s championship hopes are slim at the moment, but alive, only trailing McLaughlin on 318.5 points with one round remaining for the season.

Avramides’ race results consisted of a 23rd in Race 1, 16th in Race 2 and 17th in Race 3. With 45 championship points next to Avramides’ name, he sits in 16th overall with one round to go.

Round 10 of the British F4 Championship takes place at Brands Hatch on 4-5 October, where the championship will be decided.

Italian F4 – Barcelona

Dante Vinci’s solid Italian F4 championship season continued over the weekend in Catalonia at the Circuit de Barcelona, beginning with a strong first qualifying session to place inside the top 10 on the Race One starting grid, clocking a 1:42.469 to lock out the fourth row.

Vinci gained a solitary net position in the first feature race of the weekend, completing the session in seventh, which was good enough to place third among the Rookie cohort for Van Amersfoort Racing.

Vinci began Race Two in 17th on the back of the second qualifying session, but still managed to jump three positions during the session to improve to 14th overall and seventh among the rookies. The third and final race of the weekend was short-lived, with heavy rain cutting the session short after just four laps. Vinci was placed 19th for the race, based on his current race position at the time of the session’s end.

The final round of the Italian F4 Championship heads to Misano over the 12 October weekend. Vinci currently sits fourth in the Rookie Drivers standings and 20th in the overall standings after picking up six championship points from his efforts of Race One.

Formula One – Baku

While Oscar Piastri might have fond memories of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after a terrific win in Baku last year, this year’s race would not be a repeat of that result for the World Drivers’ Championship leader.

Heading into the Azerbaijan Grand Prix leading the championship by 31 points over teammate Lando Norris, Piastri drove well through the first two rounds of qualifying, but after a crash in Q3, he would ultimately start ninth on Sunday.

Unfortunately for Piastri, a sequence of errors, namely a false start, a near-stall, and then a lock-up into the wall at turn 5 caused the Aussie to retire on the first lap. The retirement ended Oscar’s streak of 34 races without a DNF while Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen took home his second consecutive Formula One win.

Piastri’s next chance to bounce back will come in two weeks’ time at the Singapore Grand Prix on 5 October.

IMSA SportsCar Championship – Indianapolis

The penultimate round of the IMSA SportsCar Championship swung around to Indianapolis Motor Speedway with a handful of Australians locked in for the Battle on the Bricks.

Following the six-hour long race session, Josh Burdon claimed the bottom step of the the podium in the LMP2 category alongside Riley teammates Gar Robinson and Felipe Farga.

While in the GTD category, Tom Sargent snagged a runner-up finish in his team’s Porsche 911 GT3 R for Wright Motorsport.

In the leading GTP pack, Matt Campbell held a steady nerve to finish inside top 10 outright for Penske Motorsport. He and his teammate Mathieu Jaminet tallied the full 243 laps inside their Porsche 963 to solidify a consistent performance on the day.

Also, current Supercars Championship leader and Sprint Cup champion Broc Feeney made a rare trip overseas to firm up the 75 Express driver line-up in the GTD Pro category alongside compatriot Kenny Habul.

However, Feeney and Habul would not see out the full session, retiring their Mercedes AMG GT3 on lap 124 due to mechanical problems.

One round now remains in the season for our representatives at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta for the Petit Le Mans 10 Hours on 11 October.

International GT Open – Barcelona

Greystone GT celebrated a double podium in the latest round of the International GT Open in Barcelona, with teammates Jayden Kelly and Josh Rattican finishing Race 2 of the round in third, less than a second behind the other Greystone car of James Kell and Dean Macdonald.

It was a tough slog for Kelly and his British co-driver, who began the race all the way back in in 16th at the start of the race after a wet qualifying session, however, it would not stop the pair from delivering their second podium finish of the season in the short time they have been there.

The Race 2 podium came behind a solid Race 1 performance, where Kelly, as the second driver, brought the car home with good pace and focus, to finish the session fourth and rounding out a strong weekend points-wise.

The final stop of the International GT Open heads to The Temple of Speed on 20 October to conclude Kelly’s season.