It was a difficult weekend for our Aussies in the United States this weekend, while Oscar Piastri fared well in a three day Formula 2 testing session in Barcelona.
Will Power - NTT IndyCar Series
The Queenslander enjoyed a solid start to the season earlier this month, producing a well-deserved second place finish in Birmingham, Alabama
With the series running on consecutive weekends, the second round on the streets of St Petersburg in Florida, Power was unable to match the result due to a difficult qualifying session where he ended up in 20th place.
Despite his low start, Power showed plenty of fight throughout the 100 lap race, gaining a race-high 12 places and finishing in eighth place outright and with a solid haul of points.
The strong finish saw Power stay equal second on the standings after two rounds with the next round coming this coming weekend taking place in Texas.
Three-time Repco Supercars Champion Scott McLaughlin continued his brilliant start to life in the United States, crossing the line in 11th place.
Alex Peroni - IndyLights
Tasmanian Alex Peroni has continued his good start to the IndyLights season, finishing with two top 10 placings.
It was a different story in each race though, with Peroni qualifying P7 for race one and P5 for the second – his speed once again proving to be an issue in Q1.
When it came to the race, Peroni showed no signs of intimidation – moving up two spots and grabbing an impressive fifth. It didn’t come easy though as he battled hard against American Sting Ray Robb, eventually beating him by less than a second.
In the second race, Peroni would have had confidence of moving up even further and fighting for the maiden podium, however it turned out to be the opposite, the 21-year-old dropping down the order to seventh, before losing another late in the race to
finish P8.
Despite his best efforts, Peroni ended the weekend in seventh place on the standings with the next round to take place on 13-15 May.
Cameron Shields - Indy Pro 2000
Queenslander Cameron Shields was another driver to endure a tough weekend following a strong start last weekend.
However unlike Power, Shields was unable to recover from disappointing qualifying sessions, placing P12 for both runs.
The opening race proved disastrous before it had even started with Shields losing all power and once the race began, it didn’t get any better as he failed to make up any ground and eventually finished in 14th, being twice lapped in the process.
On Sunday, he was able to produce a slightly better outcome – gaining one place and finishing in P11. Unfortunately Shields now sits in 10th place and with lots to think about ahead of the next round on 13-15 May.
Oscar Piastri - Formula 2
Oscar Piastri and the rest of the Formula 2 Championship spent the weekend testing in Barcelona after its opening round last month.
Currently fourth on the outright standings, Piastri had a tough first two days, notching up 111 laps and only getting inside the top 10 in one of the four sessions.
It was not all doom and gloom for Piastri though, especially on the second day where he finished 16th on the timesheets, but was less than a second to the fastest driver in Richard Verschoor.
On the final day of testing, Piastri showed his true pace in the morning, getting the second fastest lap time the whole weekend and finishing less than two tenths behind Felipe Drugovich. Piastri wrapped up testing with a top 10 time in the afternoon
session.
The championship’s next round will be later next month, taking place as a support category at the famous Monaco Grand Prix.