Daruvala back on form with pole in Spa-Francorchamps: F3

Spa Francorchamps, 30 August 2019: Indian racing sensation Jehan Daruvala scored his first pole position of the season with a scintillating late tour of Spa-Francorchamps in Friday’s FIA Formula 3 Qualifying. The Prema Racing ace was the best of a late sprint to pole, beating out Trident’s Pedro Piquet and Jenzer Motorsport’s Yuki Tsunoda.

Crucially for the Indian, it adds four points to his tally, as he chases Russian Robert Schwartzman & Juri Vips from Estonia, in the championship battle.

 The ultra-competitive nature of the FIA F3 championship has seen a wide range of drivers performing through the season and Jehan was sixth different pole sitter in the six rounds of the season so far.

The moment qualifying started, almost all cars were on track jostling for position and after the first set of laps, it was former Brazilian F3 champion Pedro Piquet who was on provisional pole. Jehan’s quick laps were only good enough for seventh. Jehan was the slowest of the top eleven on the straights at that time and when he pulled into the pits, the team altered setup reducing Jehan’s downforce.

All drivers had changed tyres and were back on track. The changes to his car suited Jehan when he returned to track and he immediately put in his personal fastest in sector 1. Sector 2 was where Jehan was sensational, posting a time faster than everyone else. A quick sector 3 sealed pole for Jehan with a lap time of 2:05.125. Such was Jehan’s pace that he managed to have the highest lap time margin for pole the entire season!

 “Finally pole position! I have been thereabouts all season, fighting for pole, and then I got it so I’m very very happy for myself and the team. It’s great to bounce back after a bad weekend at Budapest. It was a chaotic session, but I managed to stay out of trouble. The car was great. After the first set of laps, I knew I didn’t put it together so I just wanted to focus on the driving and get a good lap. We tweaked something in the middle of the session which also helped. To be on pole at Spa is amazing, hopefully, I can turn it into a win.” said Jehan.

 Piquet was second followed immediately by Tsunoda & Championship leader Shwartzman, Jehan will start on pole for Race 1 today while top 8 in Race 1 will be reversed for the start of Race 2. Jehan sits 3^rd currently in the championship, 16 points behind Shwartzman and 4 points behind Vips.

Earlier, Christian Lundgaard led the cars out into the 35-degree track temperature, but it was Piquet who was hottest in the early stages, beating out both the Dane and Leonardo Pulcini for provisional pole. The Brazilian racer was swiftly backed up by his Trident teammate Devlin DeFrancesco, who looked much improved in Round 6 and was eyeing his best Qualifying of the season.

The two held their positions as the cars ducked into the pits for fresh boots and were the first back out on track for the final fifteen minutes of the afternoon. Armed with fresh tyres, the times started to tumble and the duo’s positions were under threat. Jüri Vips – hopeful of taking the title lead this weekend – was the first to steal provisional pole, with a time of 2.05.625.

The Estonian’s time on top was short lived as Piquet, Tsunoda and Robert Shwartzman leapt ahead of him in quick succession. With less than five minutes remaining and one shot at pole, Daruvala managed the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps two tenths quicker than them all and claimed his position in P1.

In the third PREMA, Marcus Armstrong was hoping to follow up his first win of the season in Budapest, with another strong weekend. The Kiwi complained of traffic on track and eased off in the hope of finding space, but it never came and he was left to settle for 19^th.

When the chequered flag was waved, Daruvala was followed by Piquet, while Tsunoda secured his best Qualifying position of the season in 3^rd. Shwartzman and Jake Hughes completed the front five ahead of Vips, DeFrancesco, Pulcini, Logan Sargeant and Liam Lawson.

Daruvala will be hunting down his first win since Round 2 when Race 1 gets underway at 2.05pm IST (10.35am local time) on Saturday morning.

About Jehan Daruvala: The 20-year-old Jehan began his career in Karting at the age of 10. Since then he has won the Indian National Karting Championship, the Malaysian Junior Yamaha Karting Championship, the FIA CIK Asia Pacific KF3 Championship, and the British SuperOne National Karting Championship. Jehan remains the only Indian on the podium of any FIA World Championship when he was second runner up of the FIA CIK World Karting Championship. Jehan also remains the only Indian to win a Grand Prix, when he won the New Zealand Grand Prix and later went on to become the only Indian to win a race in the erstwhile FIA F3 European Championship, which used slower cars. Earlier this year Jehan was selected by Prema Racing, one of the world’s most successful Junior Racing teams’ to drive for them in this year’s new, FIA F3 Championship. He already has two wins and five podiums and is currently third in the F3 leaderboard.