Second consecutive F3 win for Jehan

Le Castellet (France), June 22 (IANS) Indian racing sensation Jehan Daruvala bagged his second consecutive victory at the 5.842 km, Circuit Paul Ricard, Le Castellet here on Saturday.

His victory in the FIA Formula 3 Championship, once again in front of an F1 audience, thanks to F3, being the support race at the French Grand Prix. Jehan's performance sees him move up to 2nd in the championship standings.

Jehan began the weekend well, completing practice in fourth. He was on provisional pole almost the entire qualifying session, but was beaten right at the end by a mere eight hundredths of a second by Jake Hughes of the HWA Racelab Racing Team.

Jehan was unable to make a good start from the front row of the grid, as the lights went out and fell down to third on the grid. Brazilian Pedro Piquet, son of Formula 1 Champion Nelson Piquet took advantage to take second place from Jehan.

In a matter of a few laps Jehan made amends and soon got past the Brazilian, but in the meantime, pole sitter, Jake Hughes had managed to open a gap of over 2 seconds over Jehan.

The Indian put in some blistering laps to come within DRS range of the leader and soon made a brilliant move down the inside of the Briton from four car lengths behind. Jehan had to work hard to keep Hughes behind him as they exited from the corner, and successfully managed to keep him at bay.

Jehan was consistently quicker thereafter and managed to open up a gap behind him. He continued to pull away to cruise to victory by 2.8 seconds from his Prema Racing teammate, Robert Shwartzman, who had also managed to gain a position to finish second ahead of Piquet.

"I'm really happy for today's result as the pace was extremely good throughout the whole race, "said Jehan after the race.

Jehan will now start the second race of the weekend in 8th place, thanks to the regulations which dictate that the top eight finishers, from race one, are reversed for the second race.