Oliver Rowland remains second in the FIA Formula 2 Championship standings after the results at the Red Bull Ring, with the DAMS driver taking fourth in the Feature race before finishing on the podium in third in Sunday’s Sprint race.
The Renault Sport Formula 1 Team Development Driver had a consistent weekend in Austria, showing good pace throughout, but found himself finishing behind title rival Charles Leclerc, team-mate Nicholas Latifi, and Prema Racing’s Antonio Fuoco on Saturday after pushing too hard, too early on his tyres and losing out a little bit towards the end of the race.
Starting the Sprint race from fifth on the grid, he made the most of Ralph Boschung stalling to jump into third, but was unable to do anything about Alexander Albon ahead of him, ultimately being forced to settle for the bottom step of the podium, finishing just 0.597 seconds down on the Thai driver.
“Practice was pretty good, but we knew where to improve and qualifying went quite well,” admitted Rowland. “We had a couple of issues and could’ve been even closer to the front, so I was confident of getting a solid result in race one.
“I had an issue with the clutch at the start in race one, but we had good pace. I pushed too hard early on and lost a bit at the end.
“I was pleased with third on Sunday, we could’ve maybe attacked more for second, but the points are important for the championship.”
