[khanak]

Prema Racing’s Jehan Daruvala entered the season in top form, winning the second race of the heated race weekend at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in front of an F1 audience. However that wasn’t the only time the Indian national anthem would echo at an international circuit. The young Mumbai-based racer, carried serious pace even at the French GP. Adding valuable points to his season profile, he took yet another win, consecutively his second win at the FIA Formula 3 Championship. The win earned him enough points to push him up to second on the leaderboard.

THE RACE:
Jehan pushed hard even in qualifying, in an effort to stay on pole. At the end of the session, HWA Racelab Racing Team’s Jake Hughes carried better speed around the 5.8km circuit and grabbed pole by a mere eight hundredths of a second.

The Force India protégé was unable to make a good start from the front row of the grid, as the lights went out and fell down to third on the grid. Brazilian Pedro Piquet, son of Formula 1 Champion Nelson Piquet took advantage to take second place from Jehan.

In a matter of a few laps Jehan made amends and soon got past the Brazilian, but in the meantime, pole sitter, Jake Hughes had managed to open a gap of over 2 seconds over Jehan. The Indian put in some blistering laps to come within DRS range of the leader & soon made a brilliant move down the inside of the Briton from four car lengths behind. Jehan had to work hard to keep Hughes behind him as they exited from the corner, and successfully managed to keep him at bay.

Jehan was consistently quicker thereafter and managed to open up a gap behind him. He continued to pull away to cruise to victory by 2.8 seconds from his Prema Racing teammate, Robert Shwartzman, who had also managed to gain a position to finish second ahead of Piquet.

“I’m really happy for today’s result as the pace was extremely good throughout the whole race. At the start, I didn’t go off the line as I would have liked to, but I did not need to over push, I tried to stay in the DRS zone of Pedro and I got the job done on the first lap of DRS. Then I started hunting Jake. At the beginning I was just recovering a couple of tenths here and there, I tried not to push too much and stay in pace. In sector 3 I was strong compared to him. When I got in the DRS zone I managed to get him before the last corner and had the DRS on the main straight. I have been good in sector 3 for the whole week so I knew that if I could hold him off, I would have the chance to pull away and it went according to plan. After that, the car was as good as it could be and I could manage the gap.” Said Jehan after the race.

Jehan will now start the second race of the weekend in 8th place, thanks to the regulations which dictate that the top eight finishers, from race one, are reversed for the second race.

https://evoindia.com/jehan-daruvala-...NTu6REUS7yU67c

[GTO]

And he makes it a hat trick - congrats to Jehan!

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, due to the regulations which dictate that the top eight finishers are reversed, for the start of the 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.

Alex Peroni from Australia, meanwhile continued to lead the race, taking advantage of the battles behind him. Jehan was soon up to fifth, but faced quite a task, with a gap of over 2.4 seconds to the pack of cars ahead. He pushed hard and managed to successfully close the gap and move into fourth.

Jehan’s Prema Racing teammate Robert Shwartzman, 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 for second. Not content with second Jehan tried to close the gap to Shwartzman, but in the process of pushing extremely hard right through the entire race and the numerous battles he had along the way, Jehan’s tyres were beginning to degrade. He lost a bit of pace and was re passed by Piquet, who was also able to use the DRS to his advantage.

Jehan comfortably held onto third, crossing the finish line behind Shwartzman and Piquet and 5.4 seconds ahead of Verschoor, of MP Motorsport.

"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. Two podiums in one weekend are good, now we have to see where we can do better. For me, just the start and the first lap, while the car has been good all weekend. Hopefully, we will have the same result next weekend." said Jehan after his hat-trick of podiums.

Jehan’s continuing impressive performances in front of the Formula 1 teams at the Formula 1 support races ensures that he continues to lie second in the championship with 58 points. His next race will be at the RedBull Ring Circuit in Spielberg along with the Austrian Grand Prix the coming weekend.

[TusharK]

Jehan Daruvala completed a hat-trick of podiums after finishing in third place in the Formula 3 race held in France.



Jehan won the feature race held on Saturday, which meant he had to start the sprint race on Sunday in eighth place after the grid positions for the top 8 finishers were reversed.



On the first lap, Jehan dropped down to 10th place and then steadily made his way up the order to 5th place. He then managed to reduce the 2.4-second gap to the pack of cars up ahead and soon moved into fourth place, and then into third.



At one point, Jehan passed Pedro Piquet to grab second place. But, the Brazilian later overtook him. In the end, Jehan had to settle for 3rd.

Jehan had also won the first sprint race of the 2019 season held in Spain on May 12, 2019.





Link to Team-BHP News

[fz_rider]

Jehan has been inducted into Redbull junior program and will be joining Carlin for the 2020 Formula 2 season.
Great going, and hope to see an Indian again on the Formula 1 grid.

[philipmathen]

Excellent news, so happy for him. The RB Junior programme is notorious for the extreme demands on young drivers, but this can only be a good step for Jehan.

Hope to see him land a F1 drive someday, have followed his career from afar since the Force India talent hunt days. He has talent, and more importantly, seems like he has an excellent support system and self-belief.