Jehan Daruvala shows strong pace in Zandvoort to overcome qualifying setback in Dutch Formula 2 championship

Zandvoort (Netherlands), Sep 5: Indian racer Jehan Daruvala displayed strong pace over the Dutch round of the Formula 2 championship in Zandvoort as he fought through the field to overcome a qualifying setback.

After having been the quickest driver of the field in race pace over the first half of the season Jehan and the team struggled to match the race pace after the summer break. After the frustration of the 5 earlier rounds, the car was back on pace in qualifying and in the race.

A rare error around the tricky Zandvoort track denied Jehan the chance of a top-three start. With the narrow, twisting 4-km long layout of the seaside track notoriously difficult to overtake on, Jehan was unable to make much headway during Saturday's shorter Sprint race while being one of only 2 drivers making an overtaking move in the race.

But he combined strategy with maturity behind the wheel to climb from 17th to 10th in Sunday's main Feature event.

Jehan said, "It's a shame I made that mistake in qualifying as we had the pace to fight at the front this weekend. Still, even if the end result isn't what we wanted, there are positives to take. We seem to have turned the page on our recent struggles and rediscovered our speed. So it's going to be maximum push now heading into the final couple of rounds."

Formula 2 now heads to Monza in Italy for the penultimate round of the season. Jehan has shown strong form around the high-speed track throughout his junior career including a dominant pole-to-flag win around the layout in 2021.

The Mumbai-based driver began karting at the age of 10 in 2009 and two years later, he was picked as one of the three winners of Force India's 'One From a Billion' talent hunt.

Jehan became the first Asian to win the British KF3 karting championship in 2013. A proven winner, Jehan has won in every category he has competed in. He is currently racing in the FIA Formula 2 Championship, which is a feeder series to Formula 1 and takes place on the same weekends.