It was a bitter end to the first racing weekend of FIA Formula 2 racing for PREMA Racing, as both drivers finished outside of the top 10 on Sunday after a promising performance during the first Sprint Race of 2022.
Despite stepping on the podium on Saturday’s Sprint Race, Indian driver Jehan Daruvala had trouble keeping the positive trend of the weekend going through Sunday’s Feature Race.
The PREMA Racing driver encountered issues early into his race, which led him to drop out of the points very quickly. Despite his best efforts to climb back, Daruvala ended the race in 14th with a 14-second gap to eventual winner Theo Pourchaire after an unfortunate pit stop for new tyres.
His team mate, F3’s reigning champion Dennis Hauger, started from the pit lane after stalling at the start and suffered similar pit stop problems. As he came in to box for fresher tyres, his pit crew left the Norwegian driver with a loose wheel.
Hauger confessed the “car was feeling okay before having to fight with Nissany, which eventually damaged the tyres.” The scrapping led him to enter the pits for the hard compound Pirellis, which proved to be his downfall: “Without that pit stop, we would have been around seventh, with the others making contact,” said the F2 rookie.
“A bad start put the team on a back foot, but the race was still alive, when we put the options on,” stated Daruvala. Unfortunately, his hopes of climbing back were shattered when his front wing became damaged following a collision with DAMS driver Roy Nissany.
When asked to give feedback on the race, the Indian racer answered that “the only positive to take is that we had great pace on options, but apart from that it was pretty much a race to forget.”
The next FIA Formula 2 race weekend will be hosted in Jeddah, between the 25-27 of March 2022.
Image Credit: Formula Motorsport Ltd
