F3Indians Abroad

Jehan Daruvala takes a fighting 3rd from 8th on the grid in F3 Sprint race

Jehan Daruvala on way to podium in the Sprint race on Saturday. Rayo Racing images

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.

Jehan Daruvala (right) on the podium.

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

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