Jehan Daruvala bagged a sensational pole position at the famed Spa Francorchamps circuit in the FIA F3 Championship, part of the Belgian F1 Grand Prix weekend.
Crucially for the Indian, it adds four points to his tally, as he chases Russian Robert Schwartzman and Juri Vips from Estonia, in the championship battle.
The ultra-competitive nature of the FIA F3 championship has seen a wide range of drivers performing through the season and Jehan was sixth different pole sitter in the six rounds of the season so far.
Jostling for position
The moment qualifying started, almost all cars were on track jostling for position and after the first set of laps it was former Brazilian F3 champion Pedro Piquet who was on provisional pole.
Jehan’s quick laps were only good enough for seventh. Jehan was the slowest of the top eleven on the straights at that time and when he pulled into the pits, the team altered the set-up reducing Jehan’s downforce.
All drivers had changed tyres and were back on track. The changes to his car suited Jehan when he returned to track and he immediately put in his personal fastest in sector 1.
Sensational Sector 2
Sector 2 was where Jehan was sensational, posting a time faster than everyone else. A quick sector 3 sealed pole for Jehan with a laptime of 2:05.125. Such was Jehan’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,” said Jehan.
Piquet was second followed immediately by Tsunoda & Championship leader Shwartzman, Jehan will start on pole for Race 1 while the top 8 in Race 1 will be reversed for the start of Race 2.
Jehan sits third currently in the championship, 16 points behind Shwartzman and four points behind Vips.
