Jehan Daruvala wins a race in the inaugural Formula 3 Spanish Grand Prix

The team Prema Racing driver was the only Indian on the 30-car grid

Indian racer Jehan Daruvala has created history by winning the second race of the all-new Formula F3 Grand Prix in Spain.  In the second and third position were Hitech Grand Prix’s Jüri Vips and Niko Kari of Trident.

It must have been a proud moment for Jehan, the lone Indian in the race and billions of other Indians as the Indian national anthem was played probably for the first time at an F1 Grand Prix in front of a full crowd. The Indian racer, from team Prema Racing, started from the second position on the 30-car grid and quickly took the lead before the first corner itself. His lead though was cut short, as there was an accident at the back involving four cars at turn 1 in the first lap itself and the safety car was called into action.

When the race restarted, Jehan was on pole and after five laps with Niko Kari breathing fire down his neck, Jehan still held his ground.  However, in the ninth lap, another accident happened which involved  Simo Laaksonen  (MP Motorsport) and Campos Racing’s Alex Peroni. The latter sent the former spinning off the track and into the wall as he was trying to defend his position.  Simo retired Alex was handed a 10 second penalty and the safety car came out for the second time in the race. Due to this, the 7.4-second lead built by Daruvala crumbled as the remaining racers assembled on the grid for another restart. But the Indian racer just got a strong start and built a lead of 1.5 seconds in just two laps.  

In the final two laps, Vips closed on Kari and took P2. Daruvala dominated the race with an unassailable lead to take the chequered flag ahead of the Hitech man in second, Kari in P3.

“I was in control of the race, except for the first restart. After that, I was just managing the pace. I have to thank everyone at Prema Racing for giving me a fantastic car. I did not overdrive it although if I needed more I could have pushed in the final couple of laps.” the former multiple International Karting Champion said.

In the overall driver standings, Robert Shwartzman (Prema Racing) is on top after the first round with 37 points, followed by  Christian Lundgaard (Art Grand Prix) in second with 24 points and Daruvala in third with 23 points. PREMA Racing leap to an early lead in the Team’s Championship, taking 81 points from the first event of the season, 32 points ahead of ART Grand Prix in second with 49, with Hitech Grand Prix occupying third place with 20 points.

The all-new FIA F3 Championship was created by merging the erstwhile GP3 Championship and FIA F3 European Championship, resulting in an ultra-competitive 30-car grid. The championship will be the perfect training ground for the world’s best upcoming talents, to race at F1 events and get the opportunity to prove themselves to all the F1 teams.

France will host the second round of the FIA Formula 3 on June 21-23.

About Jehan Daruvala

Jehan Daruvala began his career in karting at the age of 10. Since then he has won the Indian National Karting Championship, the Malaysian Junior Yamaha Karting Championship, the FIA CIK Asia Pacific KF3 Championship and the British Superone National Karting Championship. Jehan remains the only Indian on the podium of any FIA World Championship when he was the second runner up in the FIA CIK World Karting Championship. Jehan also remains the only Indian to win a Grand Prix, when he won the New Zealand Grand Prix and later went on to become the only Indian to win a race in the erstwhile FIA F3 European Championship, which used slower cars. Earlier this year Jehan was selected by Prema Racing, one of the world’s most successful Junior Racing teams.