2021 FIA F2 Round 1 Feature Race: 6th Place Finish For Jehan Daruvala

It wasn’t exactly the greatest feature race for Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala as he finished where he started in 6th place. His teammate, Dan Ticktum bounced back from a difficult couple of sprint races to finish on the podium in 2nd place.

Starting 6th for the final race of the weekend, Daruvala had another tough start that dropped him down to 10th in the early stages. But that was more down to the Indian driver starting on the longer lasting hard compound of tyres with some drivers behind him on faster wearing soft tyres. The strategic plan was to go longer than the soft tyre runners and then strap on the faster set of soft tyres during the mandatory pit stop period. 

By the halfway point of the race, Daruvala made his move and pitted to grab an undercut on the drivers ahead, and just as he was set to gain ground, a virtual safety car pretty much had him stuck amongst the midfield on slower tyres.

Once racing got underway again, Daruvala did manage to make his way up to 6th position, but his soft tyre advantage over the hard tyre runners began to fade towards the end of the race. Daruvala lost even more ground to the car ahead in the end due to vibrations caused by flat spotting his tyres. Fortunately, he held on to 6th ahead of Robert Schwartzman who could’ve nicked it if there was another lap in the race.

Overall not the strongest end to the opening round of the season for Jehan Daruvala, but consistent enough to currently stand 3rd overall in the drivers standings. But if Daruvala’s hoping to be a strong contender to the title and potentially an AlphaTauri F1 seat for the future, he’ll have to step it up a notch since fellow Red Bull junior driver Liam Lawson has had a great start to the season as a rookie.

It's going to be a long wait before racing action kicks off again at Monaco for the second round of the season scheduled to run from May 20-22. 

Image credits: James Gasperotti