Daruvala, Mumbai Falcons score big win

India’s top racer Jehan Daruvala created history in the Formula 3 Asian Championship, scoring a breakthrough victory for Mumbai Falcons, an all Indian-outfit, in Abu Dhabi on Thursday.

He started on pole and led every lap to comfortably win Race 1 of Round 2 in the continent’s premier championship.

In the first Qualifying session, earlier in the day, Jehan was the only racer on the grid to dip below the 1 min 52 second mark to grab the Pole position ahead of Isack Hadjar from France, who clocked 1:53.051. Chinese racer Guanyu Zhou and championship leader was a close third, posting a laptime of 1:53.070.

The Mumbai Falcons racer had a good start from pole but Hadjar managed to pull alongside Jehan before braking into Corner 1. Jehan outbraked Hadjar and held his lead exiting the corner. Jehan made no mistakes with a series of consistent laps, preventing any overtaking attempts on him. He soon opened up a lead of 1 second.

“Qualifying well was crucial. I am happy that I could control the pace from the start,” said an elated Jehan.