Jehan Daruvala glad to finish third in Jeddah after starting on a sour note
Jehan Daruvala took his second podium place in the Formula 2 season when he finished third in the second Formula 2 Feature race held at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in the Saudi Arabian capital city.
Jehan Daruvala, who started 14th, raced brilliantly, overcoming a shoddy start to his weekend - when a mechanical issue hampered his qualifying round.
The Prema racer used a mix of race craft, strategy and tyre management to claw his way up the ladder and finish on the podium.
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Earlier in the first race, Jehan Daruvala finished ninth after starting in the 13th position. The 23-year-old from Mumbai was nursing a component issue in his car during qualifying around the challenging 6.1-km street track.
Jehan Daruvala showcases skill, endurance
On Sunday, Jehan brought out his best driving skills. He passed two cars off the line at the start, pulled off a bold pass around the outside of three cars on Turn 1 at one stage, and swept past fellow Red Bull junior Ayumu Iwasa on the start-finish straight.
He timed his lone pit stop to perfection and used all his experience to keep his pace up, hunting down and passing Marcus Armstrong while managing tyre wear over a long second stint on the harder tyre.
This was Jehan's ninth podium finish.
Speaking after the race, Jehan said he was happy to finish on the podium overcoming the adversities during qualifying.
"It's very satisfying. Coming into this weekend I knew Prema had a really good car. I was really down after qualifying. But once we discovered that our lack of pace was down to a mechanical issue, it made me believe again. It was a good damage limitation and honestly the third was probably the maximum we could have had," he said after the race.
Jehan will be racing on the Imola circuit in the next round of the Formula 2 season. The races at the Imola circuit will take place from April 22 to 24.
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