Double podium for Jehan Daruvala at Assen
Assen (Netherlands), 8 Aug 2016: Indian Racing Star – Jehan Daruvala, of the Sahara Force India Academy bounced back in Round 5 of the Formula Renault 2.0 NEC Series with a double podium. Jehan had a disastrous round 4 in Belgium where he was hit by another racer and subsequently fell from the Championship lead. Two strong finishes here in Assen, saw him claim 3rd place in both races.
Earlier in the weekend, Jehan was fastest in the first practice session of the weekend out of 25 racers in the field. In practice session 2, he was third fastest behind Belgian Max Defourny and Lando Norris of Great Britain.
Qualifying for Race 1 was extremely close, with Lando Norris earning pole position with a lap time of 1:34.684. Jehan was a mere two hundredths of a second behind while Max Deformed was another miniscule nine thousandths of a second behind Jehan. Qualifying for Race 2 saw Lando and Jehan lock out the first row, in the same order as Qualifying 1, while Dorian Boccolacci claimed third on the grid.
Jehan did not have the best of starts as the lights went out for Race 1. The Indian lost a position due to a bit of wheel spin and fell to third. Jehan then tried to reclaim his position back at turn 3, but he was not able to make the move stick, allowing Defourny to pass him. Soon, Portuguese racer – Henrique Chaves lunged down Jehan’s inside and the two racers made contact. Jehan fortunately managed to continue without losing a place. The positions remained the same for another 7 laps as Jehan closed the gap in front. He then a made a good move on Defourny to claim back third, which he held till the chequered flag. Lando Norris won the race ahead of Boccolacci.
Race 2 saw Jehan start second once again. This time he had a good start and maintained his position behind Lando and the two racers looked comfortable at the top. Jehan however, suddenly seemed to lose slightly over half a second a lap. Max Defourny immediately caught and passed Jehan and a few laps later even managed to pass Jehan’s team mate Lando, who also had a sudden drop in pace.
Jehan’s drop in pace meant that very soon, Boccolacci and Fenestraz were all over his rear trying to get a way past. Jehan had no option but to be defensive and he managed well to keep the two French racers behind him for the rest of the race. Defourny won comfortably ahead of Lando while Jehan completed his second podium of the weekend in front of a 100,000 strong crowd at the Dutch circuit.
“I am happy with my pace in qualifying. We need to work a bit on our race pace. Over the last few weekends, we have been struggling with the tyres going off during the race, but I am confident we will find a solution for this” said Jehan after bagging his second consecutive podium.
Jehan will be racing in 3 weeks in the Formula Renault 2.0 Euro Cup series.
eom/Rayo Racing release
