Formula 2: India's Jehan Daruvala dominates Monza sprint race for first win of season

Monza: India’s Jehan Daruvala sealed his second Formula 2 win with a dominating drive in the second sprint race in Monza on Saturday.

The Red Bull Junior started second at the ‘Temple of Speed’ behind German racer David Beckman. As the lights went out, Jehan had an excellent start and braked really late to make an excellent move into the first corner.

An incident behind resulted in a Virtual Safety Car situation. The moment racing resumed, Jehan put his head down and drove a clean consistent race.

The first few laps had Beckman within DRS range, but Jehan kept his cool and slowly inched away, opening a one second margin. Once Beckman was out of DRS range, Jehan steadily increased his lead every lap.

Three laps before the finish, Jehan had already opened a comfortable five second margin. Beckman under pressure fell down to third while Dutchman, Bent Viscaal moved into second. Soon former F3 Champion, Robert Shwartzman from Russia also overtook the German.

Jehan’s dominance meant he won the race by over six seconds, ahead of Viscaal & Shwartzman. This was Jehan’s third podium of the season and second Formula 2 victory after the Sakhir Grand Prix weekend last season.

Yesss!! P1 🏆 Got the lead at the start and then it was just about managing the tyres and the pace… looking to repeat the same tomorrow ✅ Hearing the national anthem on the top step of the Monza podium feels really special 😀 … Big thanks to @CarlinRacing for the mega car 💪🏽 pic.twitter.com/9NCXiy1r4a

— Jehan Daruvala (@DaruvalaJehan) September 11, 2021

“It feels truly special to hear the Indian national anthem on the top step of the podium. Winning at Monza is every racer’s dream. I had qualified well and knew I had the pace to win.

“Getting ahead of David at the start and then breaking the tow were critical moments in the race. A big thank you to Carlin for the great car. I am looking forward to the feature race tomorrow,” said an elated Jehan.

Jehan’s fantastic performance in qualifying saw him qualify second, just 0.04 seconds shy of pole. He will start the Feature Race tomorrow in second position, where all racers need to complete a mandatory pit stop.

Action from FIA Formula 2 – Monza, Italy - Feature Race will be live on EUROSPORT and EUROSPORT HD from 01:45 pm IST onwards on Sunday, 12th September, 2021. Eurosport channel can now be streamed on the discovery+ app.