Jehan Daruvala begins F2 season with second-place finish

Indias Jehan Daruvala began his 2021 FIA Formula 2 Championship campaign on a high note clinching second place in race 1 here at the Bahrain International CircuitJehan showed his mettle in the second race too climbing from eleventh to fourth to miss a second straight podium by a whisker In the final race he had to settle for a sixthplace finish that puts him third place in the points standings after Round 1 of 8I kept out of trouble at the start of race 1 and then made sensible moves up the order Both Lawson and I had similar pace towards the end but it was difficult to pass Its good to start the season with a podium the Red Bull Racing Junior driver said after his victoryI enjoyed race 2 too with the amount of overtaking in the last few laps Unfortunately I flatspotted my set of soft tyres causing severe vibrations that seriously compromised race 3 for me A big thanks to Carlin for the excellent car which helped me finish in the points in all the races he addedEarlier Jehan qualified sixth out of 22 racers on the grid but started on P5 owing to the reverse grid rule for the opening race He began well overtaking the car ahead to get him into fourth positionJehan then stayed just behind the pack without pushing hard to protect his tyre Halfway through the race he began mounting pressure on German racer David Beckmann for third He succeeded by first pushing him hard into a corner and then overtaking around the outside to move into thirdFrench racer Theo Pouchaire who had started on pole was next Jehan quickly closed the gap and just as he was about to make a move the Frenchmans car suffered a technical issue allowing Jehan to move up to secondRace leader Liam Lawson of New Zealand was now 27 seconds ahead Jehan reeled off a series of good laps to quickly close the gap to the leader Howewver Jehan was unable to take the race leadJehan ultimately crossed the finish line less than a second behind Lawson who won the race Such was the pace of the lead duo that Beckmann in third finished over 13 seconds behind JehanThe top ten finishers of the first race were reversed for the start of race 2 Thus Jehan started ninth for the second sprint race A first corner melee on lap one brought out the safety car while Jehan dropped a couple of placesWhen racing resumed Jehan made one position and some laps later moved up to eighth Another safety car situation saw Jehan and other drivers dive into the pits for a fresh set of soft tyresJehan was eleventh after the round of unscheduled pit stops He was on a charge the moment racing resumed and moved up steadily each lap to eventually finish fourthThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever