Pune: Force India Academy racer, Jehan Daruvala, notched up his second F3 podium with a strong drive to third place in Race 1 at the Hungaroring Formula 1 Circuit, which hosted the fourth round of the FIA F3 European Championship along with the DTM racing series.
Jehan’s weekend began in the best possible way with the Indian Rookie on top of the time sheets in the first practice, with a lap time of 1:36.073.
The second practice session saw Jehan drop to fourth on the time sheets. Qualifying for Race 1 was under tricky conditions due to rain and Jehan showed tremendous improvement in his wet weather skills to qualify in fourth.
Incredibly, he posted the same laptime of 1:50.224 as Jake Hughes, who posted his laptime slightly before Jehan and would therefore start ahead of the Indian.
Jehan made an excellent start in Race 1 from third, after another racer was penalised. Jehan pulled alongside second placed racer Jake Hughes in the run down to the first corner.
The two were soon joined by a third racer as three cars went into the first corner side by side. Jehan on the outside, was pushed very wide and forced to leave the track completely. Fortunately the Indian teenager was able to join back and also stay in third.
The extremely tight and twisty nature of the Hungaroring circuit meant that Jehan found it very difficult to overtake Hughes. Soon, the Virtual Safety Car was put into action due to an incident and Hughes managed to keep Jehan at bay at the restart, giving no chance for the Indian to overtake.
In the latter stages of the race, Jehan once again closed the gap to Hughes, but Australian racer Joey Mawson, soon joined them to make it a three-way battle.
Eventually with no positions exchanged, the trio took the chequered flag with 1.3 seconds only covering all three racers. Up ahead, Gunther took advantage to win the race comfortably.
Jehan’s third place comes after he took pole and finished second at the Monza Circuit in Italy in Round 2.
