Jehan Daruvala on Sunday created history by becoming the first Indian to clinch a victory in Formula 2 at the Sakhir Grand Prix. The 22-year-old Mumbai racer had last week made a first-ever podium F2 finish, finishing third.
F1-bound Mick Schumacher, son of the legendary Michael Schumacher, won the F2 driver’s championship despite finishing 18th after flat-spotting his tyre on the first lap.
Jehan made a good launch from 2nd on the grid and was up alongside pole sitter – Daniel Ticktum.
Tictum squeezed Jehan on the inside which allowed championship leader Schumacher to go around the outside of both of them. Eventually, Ticktum emerged in the lead, followed by Schumacher & Jehan in third. A few corners later Jehan made a good move to pass Schumacher and get into second.
A few laps later Schumacher passed Jehan, to relegate him to third. Jehan however did not give up. A thrilling battled ensued and eventually Jehangot past Schumacher once again, to get back into second. Jehan then reeled off a series of quick laps to catch the race leader. However Jehan was unable to overtake. The battle for the lead intensified as Ticktum seemed desperate to win the last race of the season. Jehan however kept his cool and kept up the pressure. His excellent racecraft forced the race leader to start making mistakes, but Jehan found it tough to get past.
Eventually with less than ten laps to go, Jehan made another fantastic move to get past Ticktum and took the lead.
Thereafter Jehan drove well to slowly start opening up a gap to the cars behind. Jehan finally took the chequered flag to win his maiden FIA Formula 2 race. His Japanese teammate YukiTsunoda was second, over 3.5 seconds behind Jehan, while Ticktum was third.
“Motorsport is pretty big in India,” an elated jehan said after his win. “We obviously have a lot of people, so I have a big fanbase back home, and my goal at the end of the day is to do myself proud but also do my country proud and to prove to people from back home that even though we don’t have the same facilities and stuff that guys have in Europe, as long as you can work hard you can fight right at the sharp end of the grid.”
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