Jehan Daruvala finishes third in F2 sprint race in Italy's Monza

Photo courtesy/Official Twitter handle of Jehan Daruvala

India's F2 driver Jehan Daruvala returned to the podium with a third-place finish in the Formula 2 Sprint race at the hallowed Monza track here. The 23-year-old, having started fifth on the grid, eventually crossed the line seven seconds behind winner Juri Vips and runner-up Frederick Vesti on Saturday. "It feels good to be back," said Jehan, after taking his seventh top-three finish of the season. "It's been a tough few weeks before this. I feel alive again and it feels nice to be back at the front," he added. This was Jehan's fifth podium finish at Monza and he went wheel-to-wheel with Logan Sargeant right off the line.

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The pair got involved in a heart-stopping battle all the way through the first chicane and the long, high-speed Curva Grande. Jehan, on the inside, defended robustly going into the second chicane to come out ahead. A brief safety car followed and while Jehan held his position at the restart, Sargeant slip-streamed past him soon after. The Prema Racing driver, however, fought back, getting past the American racer and setting his sights on fellow Red Bull junior Ayumu Iwasa.

He made short work of Iwasa to move up to third and comfortably held on to the final podium spot. "We had the pace once again to fight at the front and we showed what we could do," Jehan said. "We're starting in a similar position for tomorrow and we can draw a lot of encouragement from the result today to aim for another strong finish tomorrow," he added. Jehan, who has a strong record at Monza, will now be heading into Sunday's main feature race for which he starts sixth. With his Prema Racing team back on form for their home race, Jehan has his sights set on making it two podiums from two races this weekend.

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