Jehan Comes Second In France
Indian racing champ, Jehan Daruvala, scored his sixth podium of the season in the French round of the Formula 2 championship, at Le Castellet, leaving the Paul Ricard track with yet another strong points-scoring weekend.
Jehan started the Sprint race on 23rd July from pole position and after a lightning start led into the first corner. He was comfortably holding his own at the front when an incident involving three cars brought out the safety car. Jehan timed the restart to perfection, allowing him to open up a small gap to second-placed Liam Lawson. But the latter’s superior straight-line speed allowed him to close in.
It looked like it would only be a matter of time before Lawson used his car’s superior speed down the straights to get past Jehan and sure enough the Kiwi swept around the outside into Turn 1. A few laps later Marcus Armstrong attempted to pass Jehan for second at the same corner, but Jehan kept his position. He had to slow down significantly, however, to give up any advantage he may have gained, which allowed Lawson to pull clear at the front.
On July 24th, Jehan started the Feature race from 10th on the grid, but fought his way up to seventh, which put him in the lead before his stops, and blistering speed after his late switch to fresh tyres, saw him climb up the order. Jehan’s second-place finish in France was his fifth this season.
Jehan said, “It’s good to be back on the podium after what happened in Silverstone and Austria. We were struggling with pace down the straights but had some good battles to finish 2nd. It was a solid weekend for us. We still have some areas to work on and I’m confident we’ll come back stronger next weekend in Hungary.”
The 23-year-old, who races for Italian team Prema, was robbed of a potential fourth F2 victory by a post-race penalty in the last round in Austria. The Red Bull-backed racer, who earlier this week completed a second Formula One test with McLaren, now heads to Hungary, the last round of a busy month of racing before the annual summer break.
Picture Credits – James Gasperotti
