PREMA Racing, Daruvala claim feature race win at Monza

PREMA Racing claimed its third win of the season today at its home track of Monza as Jehan Daruvala won the FIA Formula 2 Championship Feature Race at the Italian venue. 

The 23-year-old Indian got caught in a melee at the start, but good timing and some luck with an on-track situation enabled him to take full advantage of the safety car for his mandatory pit-stop. Daruvala came back on track virtually in the lead, and as the contenders stopped, he kept gaining positions while managing his tyre degradation. For the Red Bull Junior it was the first career FIA F2 Feature Race win. 

Fellow Red Bull Junior driver Dennis Hauger had a more troubled race but still rebounded to take a top-5 finish. The Norwegian had a positive first part of the race, but he was assessed a drive-through penalty for a pre-race infraction. Hauger initially fell down the order but used his pace to make the most out of his original strategy. In the end, he brought home a fifth place, enough for him, as well as his teammate, to look forward to the 2022 finale at Abu Dhabi with good confidence.

#1 DENNIS HAUGER

“A decent race. The start wasn’t great but there were some collisions out front as well, so I avoided them and got away with it. The drive-through lost a bit on us. Some people pitted and some didn’t and the people we had behind were in the top-5, while we were back in P14. That was a bit of a shame, but the recovery we did and the pace we had was pretty good. Just struggled a bit in the last couple of laps, but overall, it was a fine recovery and in the end, we maximized the stuff we could on track.”

Qualifying: P19

Starting position Race 1: P19

Starting position Race 2: P19

Fastest Lap: 1:32.913

Race 1: P9

Race 2: P5

#2 JEHAN DARUVALA

“I think it was a good race, starting from P6 I was hit from behind in turn four which broke my barge board. Then we got a bit lucky but also reacted well with the timing of the safety car to take a free pit stop. We came out in the lead and the stop was really good so thank you to the team. After that, I had a good pace and the car was good all the race. I used the DRS from the guys in front that didn’t pit to keep my tyres in good shape. I’m very happy and finally a feature race win.”

Qualifying: P6

Starting position Race 1: P5

Starting position Race 2: P6

Fastest Lap: 1:31.882

Race 1: P3

Race 2: P1

Source | Photo: PREMA Racing