[caption id="attachment_8621" align="alignleft" width="5184"] Jehan Daruvala on way to podium in the Sprint race on Saturday. Rayo Racing images[/caption]

Le Castellet (France), 23 June 2019: Jehan Daruvala completed a hat-trick of podiums after he stormed up the grid from eighth to second, before settling for third. Jehan’s emphatic victory yesterday in the feature race, meant he had to start from eighth today, due to the regulations which dictate that the top eight finishers are reversed, for the start of the sprint race. This was the multiple International Karting Champion’s third consecutive podium in four races, in the FIA Formula 3 Championship, which runs as a support event to the main F1 Grand Prix.

Jehan started well but fell to tenth on lap one, once the lights went out at the F1 circuit in Le Castellet. Jehan then battled hard with Logan Sargeant and Juri Vips before overtaking both racers. He was then much quicker than the racers ahead of him and began to pass them one by one, to steadily move up the order.

Alex Peroni from Australia, meanwhile continued to lead the race, taking advantage of the battles behind him. Jehan was soon up to fifth, but faced quite a task, with a gap of over 2.4 seconds to the pack of cars ahead. He pushed hard and managed to successfully close the gap and move into fourth.

[caption id="attachment_8623" align="alignleft" width="300"] Jehan Daruvala (right) on the podium.[/caption]

Jehan’s Prema Racing teammate Robert Shwartzman, had in the meantime grabbed the race lead, with Brazilian Pedro Piquet in second. Jehan had closed the gap, overtaking Red Bull Racing Junior, Yuki Tsunoda from Japan, to move up into third and soon made an excellent move to overtake Piquet for second. Not content with second Jehan tried to close the gap to Shwartzman, but in the process of pushing extremely hard right through the entire race and the numerous battles he had along the way, Jehan’s tyres were beginning to degrade. He lost a bit of pace and was re passed by Piquet, who was also able to use the DRS to his advantage.

Jehan comfortably held onto third, crossing the finish line behind Shwartzman and Piquet and 5.4 seconds ahead of Verschoor, of MP Motorsport.

"It's been a good weekend for the team and for me as well. This race was fun actually. At the start, I was a bit surprised by how quick the lights went out and then I was playing it a bit too safe for the first couple of laps. We knew we had the pace and the race was long, but maybe I took a bit too much time. When I got up to P6 the leading group of five cars was quite a long way ahead, and maybe my mistake at that stage was to push too hard to catch them instead of just chipping away. I caught them and passed all of them except Robert. My main goal was to win the race and I was pushing a lot, but Robert was doing the same and I started to struggle with the tires. Pedro did well, he stayed with me using the DRS, and when I started to struggle he passed me for second place. Two podiums in one weekend are good, now we have to see where we can do better. For me, just the start and the first lap, while the car has been good all weekend. Hopefully, we will have the same result next weekend." said Jehan after his hat-trick of podiums.

Jehan’s continuing impressive performances in front of the Formula 1 teams at the Formula 1 support races ensures that he continues to lie second in the championship with 58 points. His next race will be at the RedBull Ring Circuit in Spielberg along with the Austrian Grand Prix the coming weekend.

2019 FIA Formula 3 – Round 2 Race 2 classification

DRIVER

TEAM

1

Robert Shwartzman

PREMA Racing

2

Pedro Piquet

Trident

3

Jehan Daruvala

PREMA Racing

4

Richard Verschoor

MP Motorsport

5

Marcus Armstrong

PREMA Racing

6

Liam Lawson

MP Motorsport

7

Jake Hughes

HWA RACELAB

8

Logan Sargeant

Carlin Buzz Racing

9

Yuki Tsunoda

Jenzer Motorsport

10

Felipe Drugovich

Carlin Buzz Racing

11

Andreas Estner

Jenzer Motorsport

12

Leonardo Pulcini

Hitech Grand Prix

13

Raoul Hyman

Sauber Junior Team by Charouz

14

Alex Peroni

Campos Racing

15

Christian Lundgaard

ART Grand Prix

16

Lirim Zendeli

Sauber Junior Team by Charouz

17

Juri Vips

Hitech Grand Prix

18

Max Fewtrell

ART Grand Prix

19

Keyvan Andres

HWA RACELAB

20

Bent Viscaal

HWA RACELAB

21

Devlin DeFrancesco

Trident

22

Ye Yifei

Hitech Grand Prix

23

Alessio Deledda

Campos Racing

24

Niko Kari

Trident

NOT CLASSIFIED

Simo Laaksonen

MP Motorsport

Sebastian Fernandez

Campos Racing

Fabio Scherer

Sauber Junior Team by Charouz

Teppei Natori

Carlin Buzz Racing

David Beckmann

ART Grand Prix

OVERALL FASTEST LAP

Marcus Armstrong (PREMA Racing) - 1:52.171 on Lap 18

FASTEST LAP ELIGIBLE FOR POINTS

Marcus Armstrong (PREMA Racing)

ends