Jehan Daruvala Finishes 6th In F2 Feature Race

Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala certainly made up for his difficult qualifying with a strong 6th place finish in the feature race of round 3 of the FIA Formula 2 World Championship at the Hungaroring circuit. On the other side of the garage, his teammate and fellow Red Bull junior driver Yuki Tsunoda had a difficult race with an extra pitstop due to damage relegating him to 16th. 

While the weather gods didn’t play a hand this time for the feature race, it was action packed from start to finish. It looked like another race to forget for Daruvala as a poor getaway at the start dropped him to 21st at the end of the first lap. But since the Hungaroring circuit is known for high tyre wear and is called ‘Monaco without the barriers’, track position was key. And Jehan Daruvala was set for the long game starting on the harder medium compound tyre. 

 

As the race went on, Daruvala was among four drivers that were staying out long on the medium tyres so that when they made their mandatory pitstop, they’d be on the faster soft compound tyre with a great chance to slice through  most of the field who would be on worn mediums.  

At the end of lap 22, Daruvala finally made his mandatory pitstop and immediately started slicing through the field. Such was the performance advantage he had that he made three passes around the outside of the final corner enroute to a strong 6th place and his first points of the season.

With this result, Jehan Daruvala will now start third on the grid for the sprint race due to the top eight finishers from the feature race lining up in a reversed order for Sunday’s sprint race which will be run over 120km (28 laps) or 45 minutes. 

Can Daruvala continue this strong momentum and convert this top 3 grid slot into a maiden podium in tomorrow’s sprint race?  All will be revealed when it commences at 2:40pm (IST).

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