Jehan Daruvala takes maiden Formula 2 win in Bahrain

India's F1 hope Jehan Daruvala bagged his maiden Formula 2 win in the final round of the season at the Sakhir Grand Prix in Bahrain. This makes Daruvala the first Indian to win a race in the F2 series. 

After scoring his first podium finish a week ago, Jehan Daruvala took his maiden Formula 2 race win at the Sakhir Grand Prix, finishing his first season of the series on a high. The 22-year old racing driver became the first Indian to win an F2 race. Mick Schumacher, son of legendary F1 driver Michael Schumacher, bagged the 2020 F2 championship after the end of the race.

In the final round, Jehan was starting P2 on the grid and was placed alongside pole-sitter Daniel Ticktum. Ticktum and Jehan had a scrap early on in the race, which helped Schumacher to take the lead. However, soon enough Ticktum was back in the lead, followed by Schumacher in second and Jehan in third. Jehan wasted no time behind Schumacher and passed him very quickly. However, Schumacher again passed Jehan after the next few laps. A thrilling battle ensued between the two, and it ended with Jehan taking the second spot from Schumacher and started catching to the race leader. Both Ticktum and Jehan battled to claim the final race win of the season. While Ticktum made many mistakes, Jehan kept his cool and made a fantastic move on Ticktum with less than 10 laps to go.   

After taking the top spot, Jehan gradually opened up a gap and took the chequered flag 3.5 seconds ahead of his Carlin teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, while Ticktum finished in third.

Commenting on his achievement, an ecstatic Jehan said, 'Motorsport is pretty big in India. We obviously have a lot of people, so I have a big fanbase back home, and my goal at the end of the day is to do myself proud but also do my country proud and to prove to people from back home that even though we don’t have the same facilities and stuff that guys have in Europe, as long as you can work hard you can fight right at the sharp end of the grid.'

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