2021 FIA F2 Round 2 Race 2: Jehan Daruvala Finishes 8th in Chaotic Wet Race

After a tough first sprint race, a chaotic wet weather Sprint Race 2 at Monaco saw a slightly better showing on paper from Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala, who finished in 8th position. His teammate, Dan Ticktum clinched the race win after a disqualification for Liam Lawson.  

Starting 11th on the grid, Daruvala did jump up to 9th position off the line, and was locked in a very close fight for 6th place. And with the Uni-Virtuosi of Felipe Drugovich dropping down the field, the Indian driver was promoted to 8th, the final points scoring position. 

But towards the end of the race with a late safety car bunching up the field, the battle in the midfield heated up, and once again Daruvala was nicked off a position on the final lap. This time it was  Lirim Zendeli that pipped Daruvala. While Daruvala finished 9th on the road, race winner Liam Lawson’s disqualification promoted him to the final points paying position. So while on paper it was a better race for Daruvala, it could have been better.  

After a tough couple of sprint races and falling from 3rd to 5th position in the drivers championship, if there’s some consolation for Daruvala, is that championship leader Guanyu Zhou had a point-less second sprint race. There’s still the main 42-lap feature race to recover from a tough weekend, but he’ll be starting 11th due to qualifying 11th yesterday. So a bold strategy may be what’s needed to score a decent haul of points. 

The feature race will take place at 8:45pm (IST), and will be broadcast on EuroSport.