Daruvala wins another race in the Toyota Racing Series

Words: Jehan Adil Darukhanawala

Jehan Daruvala continues his stunning form at the Toyota Racing Series, in New Zealand, at the Taupo circuit. By picking up race victory in the second race of the weekend, Daruvala manages to remain in the hunt for the third spot in the championship currently occupied by M2 team-mate — Chinese Guan Yu Zhou.

Daruvala secured fourth on the grid in Race 2, virtue of the reverse grid of Race 1’s finishing positions.  Poleman Devlin de Francesco made a hash of a start and as a result lost the lead to Brendan Leitch. Simultaneously, Daruvala climbed up into second but was overtaken by Zhou on lap three.

Leitch had built up a three second lead over the field only to lose it albeit a safety car incident involving a track-stricken competitor. Championship leader and second team-mate, Lando Norris — pipped Daruvala right before the incident and hence he found himself stuck behind the trio.

Racing resumed with six laps to go and Daruvala managed to sneak past the leaders at the restart. He managed to break from the leading pack when separate incidents for four different competitors brought out the red flag and handed Daruvala another victory. Norris and Zhou too made most of the safety car restart as they made it an M2 1-2-3 finish; ahead of Leitch.

With a fifth in Race 1 and eight in Race 3; Daruvala is a mere 8 points behind third-place Zhou. Meanwhile Norris seems to have secured the championship with a healthy lead of 86 points over Brazilian Pedro Piquet, with just the final weekend left at the Manfield Park circuit. Daruvala could also manage to finish ahead of Piquet provided he overturns a 23 point deficit over the Brazilian. The M2 racing team will be hoping for a 1-2-3 in the championship but will Piquet bring his A-game is the question on everybody’s mind. Stay tuned here for further inputs on Daruvala’s progression at the series.