Jehan Daruvala continued his race-winning streak as he registered his hat-trick podium finish in the Formula 3 championship at Le Castellet, France. Prema Racing’s Jehan started the second race of the weekend at eighth place on the grid due to the regulations that dictate the top eight finishers, from race one, be reversed for the second race.
Jehan did not have a very good start and fell to the tenth position after the first lap. He then battled hard with Carlin’s Logan Sargeant and Red Bull Racing Junior’s Juri Vips lap after lap before overtaking them both, gradually picking up his pace to catch up with the race leaders.
Australia’s Alex Peroni was leading the race at this time. Jehan was soon at the fifth position without too much trouble. He now faced quite a task, with a gap of over 2.4 seconds from the top four drivers. But he had a few tricks up his sleeve which helped close the gap and move into fourth.
Jehan’s teammate Robert Shwartzman had, in the meantime, grabbed the race lead, with Brazilian Pedro Piquet in second. Jehan closed the gap, overtaking Red Bull’s, Yuki Tsunoda from Japan, to move into third and soon overtook Piquet for second. Not content with second, Jehan tried to close the gap with Shwartzman. But since he was pushing extremely hard throughout the entire race, his tyres were unable to take any more beating and began to degrade. Unable to maintain his pace, Piquet re-passed him, using DRS to his advantage.
The first place on the podium was occupied was Robert Shwartzman followed by Pedro Piquet in second. Jehan occupied the third position, scoring his hat-trick podium finish in the FIA Formula 3 Championship
“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.”Jehan said after the race