Category: F2

Mumbai, 17 March 2022: Indian F1 hopeful Jehan Daruvala heads into this weekend’s season-opening Bahrain round of the Formula 2 championship with his sights set on battling for the win.

The 23-year-old from Mumbai has a strong record of success at the Sakhir desert track, winning his first Formula 2 race at the venue in 2020 in his debut season before following it up with a podium there last year.

Driving for reigning champions Prema Racing this season and having set the second-fastest time of pre-season testing at the same venue, Jehan heads into the weekend as one of the favourites.

Prema have won in Bahrain in three of the last five seasons.  

A win would mark the perfect start to a season in which Jehan is hoping to become the first Indian to win the Formula 2 title. 

Jehan said, “I can’t wait to go racing again. Getting some time off at the end of last year was good and I’m now raring to get the season underway. Bahrain is where I took my first Formula 2 win, it’s a track that suits my driving style and I’m pretty sure we can do well there again. The competition will be tough but we came away in a strong position from testing, I’m feeling at home with the team and we go into the weekend confident that we can get some big results.”

Jehan will hit the track on Friday, March 18th for practice and qualifying. The weekend’s Sprint race will be held on Saturday, March 19th, with the main Feature race scheduled for Sunday, March 20th, before the start of the Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix 

Jehan, who is also part of the Red Bull Junior Team, is heading into his third season in Formula 2, the feeder-series that sits below F1 on the single-seater ladder.

He raced for Carlin in the last two seasons but has made the move to Prema Racing this year.

The Italian racing powerhouse is the most successful outfit in Formula 2, having delivered three of the series’ five drivers’ champions, including Ferrari Formula 1 race winner Charles Leclerc and Mick Schumacher, son of seven-time world champion Michael.

Jehan, who finished third in the Formula 3 standings while racing for Prema in 2019, is looking to emulate this duo and follow Australian Oscar Piastri as the squad’s third straight Formula 2 champion.

He is eyeing a step up to F1 in 2023, which would make him only the third Indian to compete in motorsport’s top tier.

Stats and Facts

• Circuit length: 5.412 km
• First race: 2017
• Jehan’s Bahrain debut: 2020
• Wins: 1 (2020)
• Podiums: 2 (2020, 2021)
• Jehan 2021 result: 2nd (Sprint 1), 4th (Sprint 2), 6th (Feature)
• Prema pole positions: 1 (2017)
• Prema wins: 3 (2017, 2020, 2021)

Weekend Schedule

Free practice: Friday, March 18th at 1505 IST

Qualifying: Friday, March 18th at 2155 IST

Sprint race: Saturday, March 19th at 2210 IST

Feature race: Sunday, March 20th at 1610 IST

About Jehan Daruvala

Jehan Daruvala is a racing driver from Mumbai, India. He began karting at the age of 10 in 2009. Two years later, he was picked up as one of the three winners of Force India’s ‘One From a Billion’ talent hunt. In 2013, he became the first Asian to win the British KF3 karting championship. A proven winner, Jehan has won in every category he has competed in. He is currently racing in the FIA Formula 2 Championship, which is a feeder series to Formula 1 and takes place on the same weekends. Already a multiple winner in the category, Jehan’s goal for the 2022 season is to claim the title which would boost his chances of becoming only the third Indian on the Formula One grid.

Abu Dhabi(UAE), December 11, 2021: Ace Indian racer Jehan Daruvala of Carlin Racing pulled off a sensational victory in Formula 2 at the Yas Marina Circuit on Saturday.

Watch the Indian National Anthem being sung at Abu Dhabi, video courtesy ChequeredFlag on twitter @CFmagIndia

Watch a brilliant defensive move here from Jehan Daruvala Twitter handle.

The main support race for the Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix saw Jehan start on Pole (first), soak up immense pressure and eventually script his second victory and fifth podium in Formula 2 this year.

Jehan, part of the Red Bull Racing Junior Team, got off to an excellent start and held his lead in the short run down to Corner 1 of the 5.281km circuit. Behind, Dan Tictum slipped to fourth while Felipe Drugovich, starting third, gained a position to get into second.

Drugovich, then, started piling the pressure on Jehan. Twice on the first lap, the Brazilian managed to pull alongside Jehan, but the Indian held him at bay with some clever positioning of his car.

“After struggling in the early part of the weekend, it is fantastic to win here. I was under a lot of pressure in the first few laps as well as later on. But I remained confident and really enjoyed the racing. It’s a good result for the team, so thank you to everyone who has worked hard to make this happen. Starting tenth in the next race is going to be tough, but I will do my best,” said Jehan after his third win in Formula 2 races in two years.

Midway through the race, Drugovich again started piling on the pressure. He lunged down the inside of Jehan and almost shot ahead too. But Jehan stayed by his side till the corner, where he emerged ahead once again.

Initially, it seemed like Jehan had pushed his car and tyres too hard too early in the race to break the DRS opportunity for the drivers behind. But Jehan had, in fact, managed to absorb the immense pressure and repeated attacks while also preserving his tyre life. Towards the end of the race, Jehan opened up a small gap to Drugovich and kept increasing it.

Jehan comfortably won the race with a 2-second margin over Drugovich to earn his fifth podium of the season. Championship leader Oscar Piastri climbed up the order and finished third to win the 2021 Formula 2 title comfortably. The top ten from this race will be reversed for the start of Race 2, which means that Jehan will have to start tenth.

After showing tremendous pace and overtaking skills in Jeddah last weekend on the fastest street circuit on the F1 calendar, due to penalties in races, Jehan had missed out on a podium last weekend. This race was a strong comeback from the Indian star.

The Red Bull Junior driver, Daruvala, got a great launch when the lights went out, and he zoomed into the lead heading into Turn 1 and Drugovich followed behind him. “Yes, P1. I am really happy with the victory after a pretty tough race what with all the pressure behind,” said the Mumbai-born Indian.

Oscar Piastri completed a historic hat-trick in Sprint Race 1 at Yas Marina, running a superb race from 10th to third to seal the Formula 2 crown with a podium and add it to a collection that also includes the 2020 Formula 3 Championship and the 2019 Formula Renault trophy.

Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala beat UNI-Virtuosi’s Felipe Drugovich to take victory on track, but all eyes were locked on Piastri to see if he could wrap up the Championship. And the PREMA driver’s stylish performance was a fitting end to a phenomenal campaign, which includes five wins, 10 podiums and five poles.

Finishing fourth, Robert Shwartzman led Piastri for the majority of the 23 laps and put up a strong fight, but was unable to delay his teammate’s coronation, who joined Charles Leclerc and George Russell as rookie champions.

Liam Lawson, Dan Ticktum, Théo Pourchaire and Guanyu Zhou took the remaining points off offer, with tyre wear proving particular challenging in 38-degree track temperatures, which made overtaking difficult in the second half of the race.

AS IT HAPPENED

Daruvala, who started on pole in the reverse grid, following his 10th in the quualies, shot ahead with Drugovich in tow. The second Carlin of Dan Ticktum struggled offthe line, sinking to fourth, with Liam Lawson also getting the jump on him.Looking to wrap up the title at the earliest opportunity, Piastri was rapid at the start, lunging from 10th to sixth and putting himself directly behind his teammate Shwartzman, the one driver who could prevent him from clinching the crown.

The PREMAs were in fantastic form as the pair of them scampered ahead of Ticktum for a spot in the top five, before Shwartzman put some daylight between himself and Piastri, taking the final podium position from Lawson and putting the Hitech between himself and his teammate.

But Piastri swiftly responded, getting past Lawson on the following lap and returning to the tyre tracks of Shwartzman.

Daruvala and Drugovich were continuing their battle at the front of the field, as the Red Bull junior fought to ditch the UNI-Virtuosi and rid him of DRS.

All the while, Shwartzman was gaining on the pair of them, the PREMA driver cutting the gap from 3s to 1.5s within a lap, as Virtuosi pressured Drugovich to get the move done on team radio.

Shwartzman appeared in his mirrors, and this gave Drugovich the nudge he needed to make a move on Daruvala, but the Brazilian couldn’t make it stick. Initially getting in front at Turn 8, the Carlin responded and pulled back ahead at Turn 9 to retain P1.

There wasn’t too much going on behind them, with the majority of the field in a battle with their heavily degrading Pirelli, as Lawson led Ticktum, Pourchaire, Zhou, Ralph Boschung and Marcus Armstrong in the remainder of the top 10.

Piastri and Shwartzman had looked pretty settled in third and fourth, gently managing their tyres, but Piastri spotted a late opportunity and decided to take it, firing his PREMA down the inside of Shwartzman at Turn 9. The Russian attempted to fight back as Piastri locked up, but he was unable to reclaim the position as the champion-in-waiting began to pull away.

The Australian had one eye on second place but ran out of laps with just one to go. Daruvala led Drugovich and Piastri across the line for his second win of the season. Shwartzman finished fourth ahead of Lawson, with Ticktum, Pourchaire and Zhou finishing in the final points’ positions.

“Back on the top step after a disappointing weekend in Jeddah where I didn’t take many points, so it is good to start off the weekend with a victory. We weren’t too strong in Quali, but our race pace looked pretty strong.

“I had a great battle with Felipe (Drugovich) at one point and we were side-by-side for a couple of corners, but I managed to stick it out in front. The car felt good, and I just took it to the chequered flag.

“Congratulations to Oscar (Piastri), I didn’t think that I would see him on the podium from 10th, but a big well done to him, he has dominated the whole year.”

THE CHAMPIONSHIP VIEW

Piastri clinches the Championship with a tally of 227.5 points, with Shwartzman in second on 170 and Zhou third with 150. Ticktum is fourth with 143.6 points and Pourchaire fifth on 126.

In the Teams’ Championship, PREMA Racing are champions with 397.5 points, ahead of Carlin on 254.5 and UNI-Virtuosi on 234. Hitech are fourth with 215 points, ahead of ART Grand Prix on 176.

WHAT’S NEXT?

After finishing 10th, Marcus Armstrong will be bidding to take his second victory in as many rounds when he lines up from reverse grid pole in Sprint Race 2. Ralph Boschung will join the DAMS’ driver on the front row of the reverse grid at 6.45pm local time.

Action from FIA Formula 2 – Yas Marina, Abu Dhabi – Sprint Race 2 will LIVE on EUROSPORT and EUROSPORT HD from 20:15 Hrs (08:15 pm IST) onwards on Saturday, 11th December, 2021. Eurosport channel can now be streamed on the discovery+ app.

Sochi (Russia), 25 Sept 2021: Ace Indian driver Jehan Daruvala of the Red Bull Academy had to be content with a P7 as his Carlin teammate Dan Ticktum converted reverse grid pole to victory at the Sochi Autodrom on Saturday, dominating the delayed Sprint Race 1 in Russia, the sixth round of the 8-round FIA Formula 2 World Championship. The race was postponed from Saturday morning to late afternoon, as treacherous conditions forced a deferred start time.

” I really don’t know what to say. The conditions were tricky out there but I managed to get myself into P5 and I was in contention for the podium. Then a mistake cost me,” he said with an apolegitic smiley. “Anyway, the positive is we had the pace and can show that in the Feature Race tomorrow,” the Indian, who won the Monza Sprint race, promised. He is currently in 7th place in the Champinship. Here is how Jehan Daruvala raced.

Jüri Vips was second on the road and bagged his fifth podium of the 2021 campaign, while Robert Shwartzman enjoyed a strong home race, taking the final podium position on offer in third place.

Ticktum was placed under pressure early in the race by Hitech Grand Prix’s Vips, however the Estonian driver couldn’t make the pass, not risking a move onto the wet surface that existed off the dry racing line.

From there, the Carlin driver pulled out a gap and stayed ahead of the pack to secure his second race win of the season.

AS IT HAPPENED

There was drama before the race even got underway. On the way to the grid, the UNI-Virtuosi duo of Felipe Drugovich and Guanyu Zhou spun with the former making heavy contact with the wall and retiring. Zhou, who is currently in championship contention, managed to avoid the barriers but stalled his car and was unable to take the start of the race.

With just one dry racing line on the track following the morning’s torrential rain, the pack ran two formation laps behind the Safety Car before being released for a rolling start. All drivers kept it clean in the opening stages, with Vips and his Hitech teammate Liam Lawson threatening Ticktum’s lead.

The first of two Virtual Safety Cars was deployed on lap four after Bent Viscaal retired. Upon its conclusion some two laps later, championship leader Oscar Piastri got out of shape and was overtaken by ART Grand Prix’s Christian Lundgaard for 10th. But Piastri’s troubles were not over, as a further wide moment at Turn 10 saw him drop behind Marcus Armstrong and Richard Verschoor.

Back at the front, one driver was taken out of contention for the win as Lawson made a mistake at Turn 13 while running in third place, damaging the left rear of his car, which forced him to park his car in a run-off area. The mistake promoted Shwartzman into the final podium position.

Another VSC was needed to safely clear Lawson’s stricken Hitech, and at the succeeding restart, Jehan Daruvala pounced on Théo Pourchaire and Ralph Boschung to move into fifth. While Pourchaire settled into sixth after moving ahead of Boschung on the run into Turn 2.

At the halfway stage of the race, Ticktum held a four second lead, aided by a mistake from Vips at the final corner. However, Vips would soon eat back into the gap, bringing it back down to just over two seconds in the following laps.

Jake Hughes had a sniff at a podium finish for HWA RACELAB, having run in fourth place for much of the race following Lawson’s retirement. The Briton battled Shwartzman who made a mistake at Turn 10, the PREMA driver dropped behind Hughes for a few 100 metres before moving back ahead in the Turn 12 braking zone.

As the drivers searched for the extra points for the fastest lap, it was Pourchaire who prevailed, clocking a 1:50.669 on lap 16. However, trouble befell Carlin’s Daruvala, who spun at Turn 16 and dropped out of the points and into 12th in the final order.

With the top three consisting of Ticktum, Vips and Shwartzman, Hughes held off Pourchaire in the final laps to take fourth, marking HWA’s best-ever result in F2.

Ralph Boschung was sixth, surviving to the chequered flag despite a series of tyre lockups into Turn 2. Lundgaard was seventh ahead of Verschoor who took the final point up for grabs in eighth.

KEY QUOTE –

Dan Ticktum (Carlin) “I’m pretty happy with that, it was sketchy to say the least, pretty scary! I said on the radio on the grid ‘if I’m scared, then it’s probably quite bad.’ To come away with a win is amazing.

“I’m very, very happy. Jüri was pretty fast, especially at the start. In the middle of the race, I heard he was closing the gap so I had to push a lot more. Taking risks in those sort of conditions is difficult, but I’m happy with the win.”

THE CHAMPIONSHIP VIEW

Piastri and Zhou remain at the head of the Championship with 153 and 134 points respectively, despite failing to register points in the Sprint Race. Shwartzman has closed the gap and now sits on 123 points ahead of Ticktum on 119 and Vips on 102. PREMA remain top in the Teams’ battle with 276 points, ahead of Carlin on 200 points and UNI – Virtuosi, who have 193 points. Hitech Grand Prix are fourth with 174 while ART Grand Prix are fifth with 143 points

Oscar Piastri claimed his third consecutive pole position of the 2021 season in Russia, setting a blistering lap time of 1:47.465 at the Sochi Autodrom which was enough to beat Jehan Daruvala to the top spot. By adding four points to his championship tally, he further extends the gap to rival Guanyu Zhou, who was forced to settle for fourth place.

Sochi (Russia), 24 Sept 2021: Ace Indian driver and Red Bull Academy talent posted a stunning lap, but Piastri beat him after that by just 0.188 second in the qualifying session on Friday.

The Mumbai-born Indian prospect, driving for Carlin team is buoyed with the good session and will start the feature race on Sunday in P2 but for the Sprint race on Saturday he will be on P9 on the grid. “It was another close session and it was another P2 and I am really pleased with the session. The forecast for tomorrow is rain but the big one is on Sunday where I will start on the front row. The car is awesome and I thank Carlin, cheers,” said the Indian, who is considered as the best bet to become the next Indian in F1.

ART Grand Prix’s Christian Lundgaard was the first driver to emerge on the circuit at the start of Qualifying on Friday afternoon, with Ralph Boschung topping the timesheet at the end of the first runs with a 1:48.130. 

However, after all drivers completed a cool down lap and then another push lap, it was Zhou who found himself positioned at the head of the leader board, becoming the first driver to dip into the 1:47s, while Daruvala moved into third position behind Piastri. 

The cars then returned to the pits in preparation for the final runs. When the drivers returned to the track once more with 10 minutes to go, Piastri set the fastest time, going marginally faster than Zhou, who couldn’t improve on his third flying lap. 

The fight for pole appeared to be on between the top two in the championship, however on his final push lap Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala found time to jump to the head of the table with a 1:47.653 and looked to be on for his maiden pole position in Formula 2. 

However, the charging Piastri couldn’t be denied, and the Australian driver went almost two-tenths quicker than Daruvala to seal his third pole position of the season. 

A late improvement for Théo Pourchaire saw him move into third place, while Zhou couldn’t improve on his final effort and was forced to settle for fourth, over half a second down on pole-sitter Piastri. 

Boschung, who displayed strong pace in the Free Practice session as well as during Qualifying, was fifth fastest ahead of Jake Hughes, who makes another outing for HWA RACELAB this weekend.

Robert Shwartzman was seventh, while the Hitech Grand Prix duo of Liam Lawson and Juri Vips were eighth and ninth respectively, the latter securing a front-row start for Sprint Race 1. Rounding out the top ten and ensuring he would start on reverse pole for Saturday morning’s race was Carlin’s Dan Ticktum. 

Sprint Race 1, which is forecast to be held in wet conditions, is set to get underway at 10:30am local time on Saturday.