2022 FIA F2 Round 7 Silverstone Feature Race: 7th Place Finish For Daruvala

Jehan Daruvala capped off a difficult seventh round of the 2022 Formula 2 championship, by finishing seventh in the feature race in Silverstone. His teammate and fellow Red Bull junior driver, Dennis Hauger was eliminated from the race early on after an incident with Roy Nissany. 

Starting 10th on the grid, the Indian driver made up a place at the start, but was losing a bit of touch with the cars ahead thanks to starting on a harder compound of tyres. In this unconventional strategy, while the early phase was going to be difficult, the Prema driver’s tyres would be the ideal compound to be on as the race progressed. Moreover, once he would make his mandatory pitstop, he’d be on a fresher, softer set of tyres to scythe his way up the field.  

Once the soft tyre runners made their mandatory pit stops, the Indian driver was second and had begun catching Juri Vips for the race lead. But Vips eventually made his pitstop, with Daruvala following suit a lap later. With six laps to go and strapped with softer tyres Daruvala scythed his way up the field, managing to recover to seventh position at the chequered flag.

A seventh place finish should serve as some form of consolation on a damage-limiting weekend for Daruvala. The Indian driver now lies fourth in the driver’s standings at the halfway point of the season.   

Formula 2 will return to racing in less than seven days time at the Red Bull Ring in Austria. The event is scheduled to run between July 08-10.

Image credits : James Gasperotti