Carlin's Jehan Daruvala finally stood on a Formula 2 podium after finishing a brilliant 3rd in the feature race of round 11 of the FIA Formula 2 World Championship at Bahrain. His teammate and fellow Red Bull junior driver Yuki Tsunoda also had a great comeback to 6th place after starting last on the grid.
A great start helped Daruvala gain a couple of places at the start from on the grid, and was then locked in a close battle for 5th. Since he started on the softer medium compound tyre, he started to lose ground to the drivers on hard compound tyres, but still managed a long opening stint in the top 10.
Since Bahrain is a track that's tough on the tyres, Daruvala took the opportunity to pit early, hoping to have good enough pace to get ahead of the drivers who waited to take their mandatory pit stop. It worked out brilliantly as the Indian driver was 3rd with 12 laps to go. But the real fight was just about to begin as Daruvala had to hold off championship leader Mick Schumacher who was on softer and fresher medium tyres for the final stint.
An intense battle ensued for 3rd with some brilliant defensive racing from Daruvala against Schumacher. And finally on the penultimate lap, it looked like Schumacher's tyre advantage was gone. That left Daruvala on a clear run to the chequered flag for a hard fought maiden podium.
This result catapults the Indian driver to 12th overall in the drivers standings and will now start 6th for tomorrow's 124km (23 laps) or 45-minute sprint race with Tsunoda starting 3rd. This is due to the top eight finishers from the feature race slotting in a reversed grid order.
Can Jehan Daruvala continue this strong momentum and have some more surprises this weekend? All will be revealed once the sprint race commences on Sunday at 3:30pm (IST) and will be streamed live on the official F1 YouTube channel.
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