Who is Jehan Daruvala? Know all about the first Indian to win a Formula 2 race
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Indian racer Jehan Daruvala created history this week when he won the Sakhir Formula 2 Race, becoming the first Indian to ever win an F2 race. The Carlin driver finished ahead of popular F2 drivers like Mick Schumacher, Yuki Tsunoda and Dan Ticktum. The icing on the cake was that Daruvala’s Carlin teammate Tsunoda finished as runner-up to seal a one-two for the team.
“I always believed in myself, it was just a couple of reasons why things did really go well at the start of the season. They got better and better, and yeah, to finish on a high like I said means quite a lot to me,” Daruvala told the press after the race. “I hope I will be back here next year in the FIA F2 Championship. Hopefully, this win gives me some confidence to be a contender for the title next year,” he added.
Daruvala’s rise to Formula 2
Jehan Daruvala was born in Mumbai to a Parsi family in 1998. The now 22-year-old was fascinated with racing from the very beginning and started karting at the tender age of 13 in 2011 becoming a boys karting champion across Asia and Europe. Daruvala then moved to the Formula Renault 2.0 Championships as a 17-year-old in 2015 claiming fifth place in the Northern European Cup.
The all-important switch to European Formula 3 came in 2017 as the Indian was signed by Carlin. He had a terrific first season as he won a race at the Norisring and finished sixth overall. In 2019 came the switch to FIA Formula 3 as Daruvala raced for Prema Powerteam. He had another terrific year, winning two races and finishing seven times on the podium. The 3rd place finish in the championship led to talk of him getting signed up for F2.
In Formula 2, Daruvala got back to his European Formula 3 team, Carlin along with Yuki Tsunoda as his teammate. In what was a decent first season, Daruvala finished on 12th in the Driver’s standings. He ended the season on a high with the Sakhir Grand Prix win becoming the first Indian to achieve the same.
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Nevin Clinton
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