In an immensely proud moment for Indian motorsport, India’s Formula 1 hope—Jehan Daruvala has won the Formula 2 race at the Sakhir Grand Prix held in Bahrain over the weekend. The win has raised hopes that the wait to see the next Indian racing in Formula 1 may now not be too long. It’s been a decade since the likes of Narain Karthikeyan and Karun Chandhok last made an appearance in possibly the most glamorous motorsport championship in the world. The Indian National Anthem being heard across the Bahrain International Circuit was the best possible way for Jehan to end his first Formula 2 season.
A thrilling battle against the eventual F2 Champion, Mick Schumacher (son of F1 legend Michael Schumacher) and Daniel Tictum saw the 22-year-old Carlin racing driver emerge on top in the support race of the season’s penultimate Formula 1 Grand Prix. Jehan had a good launch from 2nd on the grid and was up alongside pole sitter—Daniel Ticktum. Tictum squeezed Jehan on the inside which allowed Championship Leader Mick Schumacher to go around the outside of both of them. Eventually, Ticktum emerged in the lead, followed by Schumacher and Jehan in third. A few corners later Jehan made a good move to pass Schumacher and get into second.
A few laps later Schumacher passed Jehan, to relegate him to third. Jehan however did not give up. A thrilling battle ensued and eventually Jehan got past Schumacher once again, to get back into second. Jehan then reeled off a series of quick laps to catch the race leader. However, Jehan was unable to overtake. The battle for the lead intensified as Ticktum seemed desperate to win the last race of the season. Jehan, however, kept his cool and kept up the pressure. His excellent racecraft forced the race leader to start making mistakes, but Jehan found it tough to get past.
Eventually with less than ten laps to go, Jehan made another fantastic move to get past Ticktum and grab the race lead. Thereafter he drove well to slowly start opening up a gap to the cars behind. Jehan finally took the chequered flag to win his maiden FIA Formula 2 race. “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,” said an elated Jehan.
JY TYRE SET FOR 2020 INRC
From Racing to Rallying as JK Tyre unveiled a star-studded team for the FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship season starting later this week in Arunachal Pradesh. The team has fielded almost every top rally driver of the country, including Gaurav Gill and Amittrajit Ghosh and their acclaimed navigators Musa Sherif and Ashwin Naik. Arjuna Awardee and multiple national champion Gill will lead the team’s challenge in the overall category. Driving the Mahindra XUV 300, he will have his former teammate Ghosh, a past rally and racing champion, alongside, making it the most formidable side in fray.
“Gill and Ghosh are two of the country’s finest drivers. Their testing and feedback of our products and development will add tremendous value in our endeavour to return to Indian rallying bigger and better,” Sanjay Sharma, Head of Motorsport, JK Tyre, said. He added “We are happy to have them lead our challenge. Not just that, even in these unprecedentedly difficult times, India’s finest talent have found support of JK Tyre, country’s biggest patron of motorsport, adding up to 24 members who will be sporting our colors in the event.”
Among the accomplished drivers who will turn out in JK Tyre’s canary yellow colours are Dean Mascarenhas from Mangalore (former INRC champion with navigator Shruptha Padival), Suhem Kabir from Coorg, Fabid Ahmer from Cochin and Syed Salman from Mysore amongst others. JK Tyre is also supporting four local teams from the Northeast which includes an all-girls team.
“We are looking forward to an interesting competition in the challenging terrains of Arunachal,” Gill said, revealing that he has been preparing for the season with renewed vigour. “I am happy to be back with JK after a brief hiatus,” Ghosh added. The INRC season gets underway in Arunachal Pradesh on 16 December, with two back-to-back rounds. The third round will be held in Coimbatore and the final one in Bengaluru.