Mugello F3: Piastri wins 2020 title as Lawson dominates season finale

Prema duo Piastri and Logan Sargeant were level on points heading into the season finale with ART Grand Prix's Theo Pourchaire in third place, nine points adrift of the leading pair in the drivers' championship.

There was drama on the opening lap as Sebastian Fernandez attempted to drive around the outside of Red Bull junior Lawson at the San Donato right-hander on the opening lap.

ART GP's Fernandez was pushed wide and rejoined the track three-wide with title hopeful Sargeant and Trident's Lirim Zendeli.

Sargeant and Zendeli collided and both drivers were sent into the gravel and out of the race on the entry to the Luco left-hander, leaving Pourchaire as Piastri's only obstacle to the FIA F3 crown.

The safety car was required to recover the stricken cars and it was Piastri who dropped from seventh to 10th place while Pourchaire climbed from eighth to sixth place.

Pourchaire charged through to third place, making overtakes on his team-mates Alexander Smolyar and Fernandez as well as Ferrari junior Enzo Fittipaldi.

Piastri, 19, responded by overtaking the ailing Smolyar and his Prema team-mate Frederik Vesti to move into eighth place.

Pourchaire was unable to make significant progress towards second-place runner David Beckmann (Trident), who he needed to overhaul to beat Piastri on countback.

Hitech GP's Lawson dominated at the front of the field for his third race victory of the season, almost eight seconds ahead of Beckmann, who registered his sixth podium of the year.

Pourchaire was forced to settle for the final place on the podium in third place while Piastri pipped Pourchaire's team-mate Fernandez in a photo finish for seventh place.

This was enough for Piastri to seal the FIA F3 title, three points ahead of Pourchaire and four points clear of his team-mate Sargeant.

HWA Racelab's Fittipaldi earned his best result in the series in fourth place ahead of the 2019 Macau Grand Prix winner Richard Verschoor (MP Motorsport) and his HWA team-mate Jake Hughes - making his last appearance in F3 after five years.

Piastri was seventh ahead of Fernandez, Saturday's race winner Frederik Vesti and the third ART of Smolyar.

F3 Mugello Race 2 results - 21 laps

Pos	Driver	Team	Gap
1	Liam Lawson	Hitech GP	36m30.379s
2	David Beckmann	Trident	7.806s
3	Theo Pourchaire	ART Grand Prix	9.193s
4	Enzo Fittipaldi	HWA	10.399s
5	Richard Verschoor	MP Motorsport	10.982s
6	Jake Hughes	HWA	12.436s
7	Oscar Piastri	Prema Racing	13.521s
8	Sebastian Fernandez	ART Grand Prix	13.564s
9	Frederik Vesti	Prema Racing	14.980s
10	Alexander Smolyar	ART Grand Prix	19.400s
11	Jack Doohan	HWA	20.684s
12	Dennis Hauger	Hitech GP	21.712s
13	Alex Peroni	Campos Racing	22.235s
14	Clement Novalak	Carlin	22.785s
15	Matteo Nannini	Jenzer Motorsport	23.256s
16	Olli Caldwell	Trident	23.443s
17	Lukas Dunner	MP Motorsport	26.133s
18	Roman Stanek	Charouz	29.076s
19	David Schumacher	Carlin	30.841s
20	Bent Viscaal	MP Motorsport	30.930s
21	Calan Williams	Jenzer Motorsport	32.210s
22	Federico Malvestiti	Jenzer Motorsport	34.316s
23	Michael Belov	Charouz	34.803s
24	Sophia Florsch	Campos Racing	35.284s
25	Cameron Das	Carlin	37.734s
26	Alessio Deledda	Campos Racing	55.484s
-	Logan Sargeant	Prema Racing	Collision
-	Lirim Zendeli	Trident	Collision

Final drivers' standings

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Oscar Piastri	164
2	Theo Pourchaire	161
3	Logan Sargeant	160
4	Frederik Vesti	146.5
5	Liam Lawson	143
6	David Beckmann	139.5
7	Jake Hughes	111.5
8	Lirim Zendeli	104
9	Richard Verschoor	69
10	Alex Peroni	64
11	Alexander Smolyar	59
12	Clement Novalak	45
13	Bent Viscaal	40
14	Sebastian Fernandez	31
15	Enzo Fittipaldi	27
16	Olli Caldwell	18
17	Dennis Hauger	14
18	Matteo Nannini	11
19	Pierre-Louis Chovet	5
20	Max Fewtrell	5
21	Roman Stanek	3
22	Ben Barnicoat	1
23	Michael Belov	1
24	Igor Fraga	1
25	Cameron Das	0
26	Jack Doohan	0
27	Lukas Dunner	0
28	David Schumacher	0
29	Sophia Florsch	0
30	Federico Malvestiti	0
31	Calan Williams	0
32	Enaam Ahmed	0
33	Leonardo Pulcini	0
34	Alessio Deledda	0
35	Andreas Estner	0