Mugello F3: Piastri wins 2020 title as Lawson dominates season finale
Renault junior Oscar Piastri clinched the 2020 FIA Formula 3 title in the season finale at Mugello by just three points as Liam Lawson won from reversed-grid pole position
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 |
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