Jehan Daruvala settles for third spot in FIA Formula 3 Championship

Jehan Daruvala stormed up the grid from eighth to second, before settling for the third position in the FIA Formula 3 Championship.

File photo: Jehan Daruvala has completed a hat-trick of podium finishes.

Jehan Daruvala completed a hat-trick of podiums after he stormed up the grid from eighth to second, before settling for the third position in the FIA Formula 3 Championship, which runs as a support event to the main F1 Grand Prix.

Jehan’s emphatic victory on Saturday in the feature race meant he had to start from eighth today, in the reverse grid sprint race. This was the multiple International Karting Champion’s third consecutive podium in four races.

Jehan started well but fell to tenth on lap one, once the lights went out at the F1 circuit in Le Castellet. Jehan then battled hard with Logan Sargeant and Juri Vips before overtaking both racers. He was then much quicker than the racers ahead of him and began to pass them one by one, to steadily move up the order. 

Read: Dominant Hamilton wins in another one-two finish for Mercedes

Jehan’s Prema Racing teammate Robert Schwartzman had in the meantime grabbed the race lead, with Brazilian Pedro Piquet in second. 

Jehan had closed the gap, overtaking Red Bull Racing Junior, Yuki Tsunoda from Japan, to move up into third and soon made an excellent move to overtake Piquet to take second place. Not content with second Jehan tried to close the gap to Schwartzman, but in the process of pushing extremely hard right through the entire race hurt his tyres that were beginning to degrade. He lost a bit of pace and was repassed by Piquet.

"It's been a good weekend for the team and for me as well. This race was fun actually. At the start, I was a bit surprised by how quick the lights went out and then I was playing it a bit too safe for the first couple of laps. We knew we had the pace and the race was long, but maybe I took a bit too much time. When I got up to P6 the leading group of five cars was quite a long way ahead, and maybe my mistake at that stage was to push too hard to catch them instead of just chipping away. I caught them and passed all of them except Robert. My main goal was to win the race and I was pushing a lot, but Robert was doing the same and I started to struggle with the tires. Pedro did well, he stayed with me using the DRS, and when I started to struggle he passed me for second place," said Jehan after his hat-trick of podiums. He continues to lie second in the championship with 58 points.