F2 Round 2: Jehan Daruvala gets on the podium in Saudi Arabia

Jehan Daruvala put in another battling show at round 2 of the 2022 F2 championship as it headed to the Jeddah Corniche circuit in Saudi Arabia to secure a podium. Benefitting from penalties up ahead, the Indian driver managed to secure two points as he finished in P7 in the sprint race, while he put on a superb drive in the feature race to get a podium finish with P3, jumping 11 places ahead of his poor qualifying position of P14. Here’s what went down in round 2:

The sprint race was heavily disrupted by incidents, with only about eight laps of actual racing having taken place, with the rest behind the safety car. The Indian driver started in P14, after a strange qualifying session in which his Prema car had some issues. The Indian driver managed to take advantage of incidents up ahead, while keeping his nose clean, to finish in P9 on the road. Further penalties for other drivers allowed him to actually finish P7 in the final classification, securing 2 valuable points (sprint races award points up to P8).

Starting from P14, the Daruvala was immediately on the pace in what has become one of his strongest tracks, where he performed the overtake of the season last year. Taking advantage of front runners Theo Pourchaire and Liam Lawson suffering mechanical failures, the Indian driver made an early pitstop and was on the charge thereon. While Daruvala was on the normal strategy, switching from the soft tyres to the mediums till the end of the race, it proved to be the correct one, as he overtook four cars on the track, with a particularly spectacular battle with Marcus Armstrong. Five cars ahead of him were on the alternate strategy, and they all ended up behind Daruvala after their pitstops. Following his overtake on Armstrong, the Indian driver managed a big gap behind him to finish on the podium, negating the tough qualifying session he had and putting him firmly back in the hunt for the championship.

The F2 circus returns to track action 24 April at Imola in Italy. F3 will also return, with Kush Maini in action. Stay tuned to evo India for updates on the two Indian drivers as they fight the best on the track.