Daruvala takes second place for PREMA Racing in Race 1
PREMA Racing achieved its first podium finish of the 2022 FIA Formula 2 Championship season today at Bahrain International Circuit. Indian racer Jehan Daruvala put up a brilliant drive to finish in second place after a solid qualifying effort. At the start of this weekend’s Sprint Race, Daruvala rocketed up to P2 and fought to defend the position. While he came out of the battle in P3, he stayed extremely competitive. On lap 16, he reclaimed P2 and despite a small mishap, he showed he had the potential to challenge the eventual winner.
Coming from a qualifying session that featured a few mistakes, Norwegian Dennis Hauger also put up an impressive recovery, moving to P9 at the end of the day, just shy of the points zone, after a brilliant start.
Hauger, as well as his fellow Red Bull Junior driver Daruvala, will be going at it again in tomorrow’s feature race, which is expected to feature highly critical tyre wear variables to be managed over a long distance.
#1 DENNIS HAUGER
“We made a decent improvement, especially the start was really good, but I didn’t get any big improvement from it. I was up to P9 in turn one but got a bit stuck on the inside. Now I have more knowledge for tomorrow on what to do in that position. Something wasn’t perfect at the beginning of the race, also if I had gotten past Nissany earlier, I think it could have been better. Overall it’s a step in the right direction and a learning experience. It’s now about making another step tomorrow, and bringing it forward to the next weekend as well.”
Qualifing: P15
Starting Position Race 1: P15
Fastest Lap: 1’41″509
Race 1: P9
#2 JEHAN DARUVALA
“Good way to start the season, P2 is a decent start. Obviously, I have a few mixed feelings because I had a great car and great pace. A small mistake on my side before the end, after the VSC, took us out of the fight for the win. The positive thing is that even with the bad things we had, the car had great pace. Starting P7 tomorrow is just a great opportunity to try to move forward with another good race.”
Qualifing: P7
Starting Position Race 1: P4
Fastest Lap: 1’41″115
Race 1: P2
Source | Photo: PREMA Racing