Indian racer Jehan Daruvala earned his maiden Formula 2 podium after pipping championship leader Mick Schumacher in a gripping battle for the third place at the Bahrain Grand Prix support race, here.
Starting eighth on the grid, Daruvala gained two places and stayed sixth for a few laps. However, in Lap 5, he lost two places and was forced off the circuit.
The resulting loss of speed cost him more positions. He stayed in tenth place for a few laps before pitting to change tyres.
The 22-year-old Indian emerged from the pits down in the 18th place but quickly climbed up the order. He gained more positions as others pitted and was running sixth by lap 19 of the 32 lap race.
Daruvala soon overtook multiple race winner Robert Schwartzman to move up to fifth. Race leader Schumacher then took his mandatory pit stop. Daruvala’s blistering pace after his own pitstop meant that Schumacher emerged from the pits behind the Indian, who was now running third.
The two were evenly matched for at least another six laps, before Schumacher started closing the gap on Daruvala, thanks to the the German’s fresher tyres.
Schumacher soon brought the gap down from 2 seconds to around 1.5 seconds. With the faster medium compounds on, he was able to reduce the gap down to 0.7 seconds with five laps remaining.
This meant that Schumacher was now also able to use his DRS (Drag Reduction System) which gave him extra speed on three straights around the F1 circuit.
It seemed only a matter of corners before Schumacher would overtake Daruvala. However, in a nail biting few laps, Daruvala without the option of DRS and a tyre disadvantage drove one of his best races of the season.
Daruvala’s excellent racing caused Schumacher to make a couple of mistakes. This allowed the Indian room to breathe. He continued his intelligent drive to increase the gap and crossed the line 0.894 seconds ahead of Schumacher, to earn third place.
Felipe Drugovich won the race ahead of Callum Ilott. Daruvala was the 2nd runner up in the FIA Formula 3 Championship last year.