Jehan Daruvala Charges To F3 Asia Championship Lead

It was a near perfect run at Round 2 of the 2021 F3 Asian Championship for Mumbai Falcons, as Jehan Daruvala scored consecutive victories and a second place at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi. A perfect way to really kick off Daruvala’s charge for the season title after a relatively bittersweet opening round of the season. Unfortunately, his teammate Kush Maini had another difficult round, and couldn’t break into the top ten.  

Mumbai Falcons started the second round of the season in strong form, with Daruvala qualifying on pole for Race 1. Getting off the line well, the Indian driver was being shadowed by fellow F2 rival Guanyu Zhou running from Prema, but as the race progressed Daruvala took control of the race to score his first win of the season. As for Kush Maini, qualifying in 15th did hurt his chances to get into the top 10 positions since it is notoriously difficult to overtake at the Yas Marina circuit. That being said, Maini did climb up to 12th position in the end.

With Daruvala scoring the fastest lap in the previous race, he was back on pole for Race 2. But the fight to hold on to the lead was on a whole different  level. Locked in an extremely close fight with Isack Hadjar of Evans Racing, the pair were equally matched, and at one point were even side by side with Prema’s Dino Beganovic. But that didn’t faze Daruvala as brilliant defensive driving saw the Indian take his second consecutive win by just 0.268sec. His teammate, Kush Maini, finished 11th after starting 10th on the grid.

For the third and final race of Round 2, Qualifying 2 led to Daruvala lining up third, with Maini starting 8th. Daruvala did gain a position off the line, but in this race, the Indian driver had already used up both his allocated sets of tyres in Race 1 and Race 2. The used tyres meant he couldn't challenge the eventual race winner, Pierre-Louis Chovet, who had saved up a fresh set of tyres. Instead, Daruvala was yet again locked in a close defensive battle with Isack Hadjar, but he did hold on to second at the chequered flag. Despite Maini’s top ten start, he finished 17th in the end.  

This near perfect run of results has helped Jehan Daruvala jump to the lead of the drivers standings at 95 points. But it’s extremely close, with Pierre-Louis Chovet in second place by just one point and former leader Guanyu Zhou third at 90 points. What’s more, all three drivers have scored two wins so far. In the teams standings, Mumbai Falcons improve to 3rd overall, just one point ahead of Pinnacle Motorsport. 

Racing action resumes tomorrow for the third round of the season, with qualifying and Race 1. This is followed by Race 2 and 3 on Sunday. All races will be livestreamed on the Mumbai Falcons Racing Limited YouTube channel.

Image credits: Ishaan Bhataiya / Red Bull Content Pool