Jehan Daruvala Qualifies 11th For F2 Round 2 Monaco Feature Race

It was a tough qualifying session for Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala at Round 2 of the 2021 FIA Formula 2 Championship, as the Red Bull junior driver lined up 11th for the feature race at Monaco. His teammate, Dan Ticktum, qualified in 4th position.

The constrained nature of the Monaco street circuit meant that things were a little different for qualifying. The 22-car field would be split into two groups via a ballot, with each group getting a 16-minute qualifying session. The fastest driver amongst the two groups would start on the left hand side of the grid as well as the rest of the drivers in his allotted group. The other group of drivers will start on the right hand side of the grid.

Daruvala was slotted in Group A, and so was the first group to go for their 16-minute qualifying session. The Indian driver managed to qualify 6th in his group, albeit a long way off pole position. His teammate, on the other hand, was in Group B, and was second fastest in his group. Combine the two groups together, and that left Daruvala starting 11th, and Ticktum 4th for the feature race. 

A tough start to the weekend for Daruvala as Monaco is a track where qualifying position is of utmost importance considering the lack of overtaking opportunities. In fact he was just one place off clinching reverse grid pole for tomorrow’s 30-lap/100km Sprint Race 1. There’ll be another sprint race the day after, in which the grid order will be the top 10 finishers of Sprint Race 1 reversed.

The first sprint race will take place on Friday, 3:15pm (IST), with the second one commencing on  Saturday 11:50am (IST). The main feature race will then take place at 8:20pm (IST).

Image credits: James Gasperotti