Jehan Daruvala Kicks Off 2021 F2 Season Qualifying 7th For Bahrain Feature Race

Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala, has kicked off his 2021 FIA Formula 2 Championship season by qualifying 7th for the feature race at the Bahrain International Circuit. The Red Bull junior driver’s teammate, Dan Ticktum lines up in 4th position for the opening round of the season.

 

The initial qualifying runs in the 30 minute session saw Daruvala go 4th fastest, with teammate Ticktum in 6th. Post a short red flag period, and the field was back at it for their final crack at a good lap with five minutes to go. The final runs saw Daruvala relegated to 7th, with Ticktum improving to 4th for Sunday’s feature race.

While this qualifying was pretty lowkey for Daruvala, there is a silver lining as new regulations for 2021 mean that the top 10 qualifiers will line up in a reverse order for the 23-lap/124km Sprint Race 1. This puts Daruvala in 4th place. There’ll be another sprint race in which the grid order will be the top 10 finishers of Sprint Race 1 reversed. 

The first sprint race will take place on Saturday, 3:55pm (IST), with the second one commencing at 10:10pm (IST).

Image credits: James Gasperotti