India’s Jehan Daruvala opened his bid for the Formula 2 title with a second-placed finish in the Sprint race of the championship’s first round in Bahrain.
But was unable to better his performance in the sunday's race, after starting seventh, before the first corner he lost four places and in the tyre change sequence he dropped down to 19th and in the final stages of the race, the incident during the 29th lap promoted him to 14th finish.
The 23-year-old from Mumbai, who races for Prema Racing and is a member of the Red Bull Junior Team, had started fourth after qualifying seventh under the championship’s reverse grid rules.
Jehan’s season-opening podium was founded on a good start. He was up to third straight away and, after fending off fellow Red Bull junior Liam Lawson in the Carlin, he set about in pursuit of second-placed Ralph Boschung.
The safety car was deployed on lap 3 to clear away the stranded Hitech of Marcus Armstrong.
It bunched up the field but Jehan, who took his first F2 win in Bahrain in 2020, held position, once again prevailing in a wheel-to-wheel battle with Lawson.
He caught and passed Boschung on Lap 16 just before the race was interrupted for the second time by a Virtual Safety Car.
Boschung retook second as the race resumed. But Jehan seized the place back on the 18th lap with a bold move around the outside of the Swiss racer into the right-handed turn 4.
He crossed the line less than two seconds behind Verschoor.