Jehan Daruvala, the Indian driver competing in the FIA Formula 3 Championship, has scored his fifth podium this year with a second-place on Sunday’s sprint race at Silverstone.
Racing for Prema Racing, Daruvala started the race from third on the grid, and as soon as the lights went out he was in full attack mode. At the start itself, Daruvala passed his team-mate, Marcus Armstrong and moved ahead to challenge the Estonian racer, Juri Vips. However, the Estonian was able to build a good gap over the Indian. Daruvala pushed hard to close in the gap after a few laps and just as Daruvala was close enough to make his move on Vips, an incident elsewhere on the track neutralised the track with the Virtual Safety Car. with the track neutralised, Daruvala was forced to hold station according to the no-overtaking rule under the virtual safety car.
Once the race resumed after the VSC period, Daruvala was again on full attack mode, trying to find a way past the Estonian. However, one instance where both drivers braked late into a corner and Daruvala attempted to go around the outside of Vips, forced him to go off the track. As Daruvala lost time during that move, it allowed third-placed Armstrong to close in on the Indian. Daruvala was forced to go on the defensive to hold on to his second-place which he managed well.
Daruvala got another attempt at passing Vips, but just then the Safety Car was deployed following an incident on track. When the race resumed, Vips managed to hold on to the lead over the Indian driver and went on to win the race and Daruvala finished second just 0.811 seconds later. Armstrong crossed the line in third. Daruvala’s setting the fastest lap during the race also awarded the Indian an additional two points for the championship battle. In the second race of the weekend with the reverse grid, Daruvala started seventh but retired from the race after a collision on the final lap.
Daruvala is now second in the championship battle as the next round will be held from August 3-4 during the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend.
