India’s Jehan Daruvala bagged the pole position at the famed Spa Francorchamps circuit in the FIA Formula 3 Championship, part of the Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix weekend.
Crucially for the Indian youngster, it adds four points to his tally, as he chases Russian Robert Schwartzman and Juri Vips from Estonia, in the championship battle. He currently sits third in the championship, 16 points behind Shwartzman and 4 points behind Vips.
The competitive nature of the FIA F3 championship has seen a wide range of drivers performing through the season and Daruvala was sixth different pole sitter in the six rounds of the season so far.
After the first set of laps it was former Brazilian F3 champion Pedro Piquet who was on provisional pole while the Indian’s quick laps were only good enough for seventh. He was the slowest of the top eleven on the straights at that time and when he pulled into the pits, the team altered the setup reducing Daruvala’s downforce.
All drivers had changed tyres and the changes to his car suited Daruvala and when he returned to track and he immediately put in his personal fastest in sector 1. Sector 2 was where he posted a time faster than everyone else and a quick sector 3 sealed pole with a laptime of 2:05.125. Such was Daruvala’s pace that he managed to have the highest laptime margin for pole the entire season.
“Finally pole position. I have been thereabouts all season, fighting for pole, and then I got it so I’m very happy for myself and the team. It’s great to bounce back after a bad weekend at Budapest.
“It was chaotic session, but I managed to stay out of trouble. The car was great. After the first set of laps, I knew I didn’t put it together so I just wanted to focus on the driving and get a good lap. We tweaked something in the middle of the session which also helped,” he was quoted as saying.
Piquet was second followed immediately by Tsunoda & Championship leader Shwartzman, Daruvala will start on pole for Race 1 while top 8 in Race 1 will be reversed for the start of Race 2.
