Tough Weekend For Mumbai Falcons In F3 Asia Round 4

Mumbai Falcons had a difficult penultimate round of the 2021 F3 Asian Championship, at Dubai Autodrome, with Jehan Daruvala all but out of the reckoning for winning the drivers' title. Kush Maini’s bad luck at the Dubai Autodrome continued with some very unfortunate DNFs. France's Pierre-Louis Chovet, four years younger than Daruvala, leads the championship with a points tally of 221 with just three races left. China's Guanyu Zhou is second with 189 points and Daruvala third with 156 points.

Qualifying 1 saw Jehan Daruvala line up 4th and Kush Maini 10th for Race 1. Unfortunately, neither of the Mumbai Falcons drivers improved on that, as Daruvala dropped to 5th early on and was stuck there till the chequered flag. As for Kush Maini, the Indian driver had to retire from the race. 

Although Maini retired from the previous race, he did manage to set the fastest lap. This meant he lined on pole position for Race 2, with Daruvala fifth on the grid. Maini got off the line well to keep first place, but Daruvala stalled, and was running at the back of the grid. However, Maini’s bad luck curse at the Dubai Autodrome came back to bite him as he lost the lead, and then was taken out of the race in an incident with Roy Nissany. Daruvala recovered to 12th place, scoring no points while his championship rivals finished on the podium. All in all, it was a disastrous race for the Mumbai Falcons squad.

Qualifying 2 started with Maini and Daruvala lining up 9th and 10th for the final race of the weekend. The two made a good start and were making their way towards the top five, until a mid-race incident took Daruvala out of the race. At the end of a chaotic race, Kush Maini managed to finish in 6th position.

A tough fourth round of the season has pretty much imploded Jehan Daruvala’s driver’s title aspirations. While he still stands third overall with a mathematical chance at the title, it's going to be a near impossible task heading into the season finale.

The final round of the season will take place next week at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi.  All races will be livestreamed on the Mumbai Falcons Racing Limited YouTube channel.

Image credits: Ishaan Bhataiya / Red Bull Content Pool