Jehan Continues Podium Streak With Austrian F3 Podium
Racing prodigy, Jehan Daruvala, continued his streak of podiums, with a second place finish in the sprint race of Round 3 of the FIA Formula 3 Championship in Spielberg, Austria. The Indian racing sensation was once again quick through the weekend, which was part of the support races for the Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix at the 4.318km long, Redbull Ring Circuit.
In qualifying, Jehan was on a quick lap when the red flag stopped the session, causing him to abort his lap. In the short time available once the session resumed, Jehan was able to qualify 4th out of 30 racers, with a lap-time of 1:19.934. Jehan’s team-mate, New Zealand’s Ferrari-backed racer – Marcus Armstrong, was on pole (starting first) of the highly competitive grid, which had 22 racers within one second! Race 2 had Jehan start in fifth as per reverse grid regulations. He was soon behind Lirim Zenaldi, who had fallen from first to fifth, and was aggressively defending Jehan. He then overtook Italian Leonardo Pulcini, before dismissing Fewtrell, with an excellent move as well. In the meantime Jake Hughes inherited victory after Shwartzman was handed a penalty, for colliding with race leader, Armstrong. Jehan moved up into second, to earn his fourth podium in six races in the championship so far.
“A lot happened in my race as it was pretty hectic. In turn 1 Marcus and I were side by side, and I had to take avoiding action to go around the spinning car of Piquet. The car was good so I slowly worked my way up. I didn’t expect the guys to make it easy but some battles got really close. Even if I’m second I’m not happy, because I wasn’t in the fight for the win. I feel like the car was good enough. If I had a good clean start like the others I would have been in the fight for the win,” said Jehan.
Jehan’s strong performance in both races of the Austrian Grand Prix weekend, sees him close the gap to 8 points, remaining second in the FIA F3 Championship, behind Robert Schwartzman from Russia. The next race will be in a couple of weekends, at the famed Silverstone circuit, as a support event to the iconic British Grand Prix.
