Disappointing 7th For Daruvala In F2 Round 12 Feature Race At Bahrain

Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala held on to 7th place in the feature race of round 12 of the 2020 FIA Formula 2 World Championship at Bahrain. His teammate and fellow Red Bull junior driver Yuki Tsunoda converted pole position into a closely contested race win. 

A difficult start off the line for both Carlin drivers saw Daruvala drop from 3rd to 6th on the grid, with his teammate dropping to 3rd. With the circuit layout short and riddled with long straights, it was a slipstream train for most of the top 10 runners, making overtaking a harder task than usual. 

In order to break that train and gain an undercut, Daruvala was one of the first runners to take his mandatory pitstop. The Indian driver did gain positions and was upto 5th at one point, but slowly faded away against the alternative strategy runners that had a tyre advantage. Eventually, Daruvala had to settle for 8th at the chequered flag. Post-race time penalties up front saw Darvala promoted to 7th in the end.

While Daruvala couldn’t capitalise on his strong qualifying, there is another opportunity to make up for it, as the Indian driver will start 2nd for tomorrow’s 120km (34 laps) or 45-minute sprint race with Tsunoda starting 8th. This is thanks to the top eight finishers from the feature race lining up in a reversed grid order for the sprint race. 

Can Jehan Daruvala finish his rookie Formula 2 campaign on a high? All that will transpire once the final race of the 2020 FIA Formula 2 World Championship season commences on Sunday at 5:50pm (IST) and will be streamed live on the official F1 YouTube channel.