Academy Report: P1, pole, podiums, and points in Austria

The Williams Driver Academy had another podium-filled weekend as our junior drivers joined F1 for the second part of the European tripleheader.

A pole position, win, race-leading laps, and photo finish all featured at Spielberg as our trio in F2 and F3 enjoyed Austrian action.

Here's how our rising stars handled their Red Bull Ring round.

Two consecutive Feature Race P2 finishes for Franco have the Argentine teenager surging up the championship standings as he continues growing familiarity with the F2 chassis.

His P4 start morphed into P3 as the polesitter stalled on the formation lap, and some stern defensive driving against Paul Aron, F2's championship leader, kept Franco in the podium spots.

With the Aron offence dealt with, Franco had his eyes forward and soon took P2 at Turn 3 before inheriting the race lead by running the alternative strategy as others pitted.

The fresh supersoft Pirelli tyres his team equipped with seven laps remaining gave the advantage to our Academy ace.

He emerged in P7 and promptly overtook six cars, including a sublime overtake on Pepe Martí at Turn 4, to cross the line an excellent P2, picking up the Fastest Lap point, too.

Points looked possible in Saturday's Sprint, but a last-lap spin when fighting MP Motorsport teammate Dennis Hauger dropped Franco to P11.

A brace of P9 finishes had Zak picking up two points from his Spielberg trip this year.

With a P12 qualification, our British F2 hopeful would start both races in the bottom half, and Zak had to stay sharp to advance through the field.

The Sprint Race saw him just two seconds from a point-scoring finish as he chased down Joshua Dürksen in the late stages.

Like Franco, Zak opted for the alternate strategy in the Feature Race, and those late-race overtakes paid off.

He sensibly avoided one of three stallers on the formation lap, then soon overtook Taylor Barnard at Turn 3 to keep in the upper positions, eventually pitting to P15 but fighting back.

Just 0.064s separated Zak from Jak Crawford over the line as the pair drag-raced out of the final turn, but Zak did enough to take P10, which then became P9 after post-race penalties.

There are just four weekends to go in F3, and the championship lead has returned to Luke's hands after a dominant Sunday drive.

Our 22-year-old Brit stormed to his maiden pole position on Friday to give him the best seat to start the Feature Race from, and he never looked back.

Fending off the full complement of the PREMA team, who were chasing him down, Luke's Spielberg speed meant it was a lights-to-flag victory.

He is now the only F3 driver in 2024 to secure two Feature Race wins, giving him confidence that more success could come as he heads to his home race this weekend.

More points were close on Saturday, with him bouncing back to P10 after avoiding the midfield melee on the Sprint Race's first lap, but he dropped to P11 when avoiding a huge crash in the closing stages.

Zak and Luke will have the British crowd cheering them on as F2 and F3 head to Silverstone.

It's a circuit that Franco will enjoy returning to as well after his F3 Sprint Race win last year.

Remember that you can come and ask Zak your burning questions at the Williams Racing Fan Zone on Wednesday at 11 AM for his Q&A appearance.