Australian Formula 2 driver Oscar Piastri has a 15-point lead in the championship following his maiden feature race victory on Sunday.

The Victorian converted his pole position into a race win at Monza, with championship rival Guanyu Zhou finishing in second.

It is the first feature race win in the category for Piastri, who has finished second three times this season.

The Prema driver won a sprint race this year in the opening round in Bahrain.

Piastri collected 25 points for the feature race win, plus another four points for starting on pole position.

The haul extends his lead in the championship to 15 points over Zhou, with nine races left this season.

Three of those races are feature races, for 25 points, while the other six are sprint races for fewer points.

"Leading the championships is always good and extending it is even better," Piastri said after his win.

"I really wanted to get a feature race win on the board, that was the one thing I was kind of missing this year."

While it will go down as a race won from pole position, the victory was well earned for the Australian.

There were four safety cars deployed during the 30-lap race, which bunched the field each time Piastri tried to build a lead.

After the second safety car, Piastri, Zhou and others at the front came in for their pit stop, while some stayed out and jumped ahead.

Piastri and Zhou then continued their battle while weaving through the cars that had not come in for their stop.

By the end of the third safety car, Piastri and Zhou were first and second and fighting for the win.

Piastri nearly lost the lead at the first turn after the restart when he locked up his tyres.

Zhou tried to take advantage into the next chicane but Piastri held on for what would become a race-winning move.

The race ended behind the safety car when it was brought out for a fourth time on the penultimate lap.