Jehan walks away from a triple roll accident at Silverstone
Silverstone (UK), 11 Sept 2015: Sahara Force India Academy racer, Jehan Daruvala, escaped unhurt as he walked away after a triple roll accident following a contact with teammate at Silverstone
on Friday.
The Indian racer is taking part in the Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup series for the first time. Daruvala was quick in practice but had a terrible crash in Race 1 to effectively bring an end to his event.
The 16-year-old Indian topped the time sheets of the first practice session with a laptime of 1:58.831 with 28 cars on the grid. In session 2 he slipped down to 7th in the order, 0.4 seconds off. In qualifying for race 1 and 2, Jehan at one stage had the quickest sector times, when a small but crucial mistake put him out of contention for pole in both races. The huge number of cars on the grid means that starting orders were not based on pure quickest lap and Jehan would start 6th for race 1 and 14th for race 2.
Race 1 started with Jehan 6th on the grid. Unfortunately the race took a nasty turn for Jehan, as going into the Becketts curve, he was squeezed by team-mate Ben Barnicoat. The 2 cars made contact and Jehan left the track at high speed. He hit the gravel trap sideways and the car dug in, causing Jehan to roll over twice and then flip end-over-end with his car coming to rest on top of the barriers in dramatic fashion.
Luckily Jehan was completely safe, and the marshals were by his side in seconds. As Jehan got out of the car, the race was red flagged due to another horrific looking crash a few corners later.
“We both entered the complex side by side and there was contact. I was a mere passenger after that. It is the first time I have had to get out of a car upside down” said a disappointed Jehan adding a touch of humor to the incident. His car was completely wrecked and the situation meant that Jehan would not be able to participate in race 2.
The team worked hard and somehow managed to put the car back together for Race 3 the next day. Jehan was optimistic about the race, but unfortunately the car had suffered too much damage in the triple roll the previous day. Jehan suffered from suspension issues, with his laptimes around 0.9 seconds slower than the quickest, he crossed the line in 16th position.
“I have to really thank the team for the excellent job they did to prepare the car for Race 3. Sadly, there were some issues which couldn’t be solved at the track and I was off the pace. That’s the way racing is. I am happy with the pace I had in practice and qualifying. I am just going to now focus and look forward to my next race this weekend in Nurburgring” said Jehan
eom/Rayo Racing release
