Jehan Daruvala Bags His First Formula Car Win in New Zealand

This victory is truly a special one for this young Indian racer, especially considering the fact that Illustrious Formula 1 greats like Jackie Stewart, Jack Brabham, Stirling Moss, Jim Clark and Bruce McLaren were all former winners of the Lady Wigram Trophy. Moreover this exceptional win did not come easy to him. At the start of Race 1, Jehan lost a position, but soon recovered and had a straightforward race to finish eighth.

Now interestingly, the reverse of the top eight would be the starting positions for Race 2, which means Jehan had to start on pole for Race 2. But sadly in the second race he made one of his worst starts and fell down all the way to ninth position. Despite of all that Jehan was determined to get the best out of Race 3 and started in fifteenth position. This time the track was damp and incidentally all the drivers were using slick tyres (Dry Tyres) and soon because of constant drizzling on track Jehan's team mate - Pedro Piquet, pitted for wet tyres, which helped him gain lot of time.

Soon Jehan was also called into the pits to change to wet tyres and after the pit stop he was a lap behind the race leader, Lando Norris. But Jehan soon realised the benefits of the tyres and started fighting his way up the field and once he unlapped himself from the race leader he started overtaking others. By this time few drivers in front also pitted for wet tyres, which though gave Jehan a further advantage, the real turning point of the race was when the Safety Car was deployed negating the advantage of the drivers in front.

By now only Pedro Piquet was on wet tyres in front of Jehan, while all the other drivers were bunched due to the safety car. By the time it was pulled into the pits, Jehan had got the most of it and soon overtook Pedro and then one by one the others, including some from around the outside of the hairpin corner. Within one lap Jehan was leading the race and was nailed to his position, this is when the safety car was deployed once again, and soon the race was stopped, earning Jehan his maiden victory.

After the race Jehan said, "My first 2 races were not ideal. Race 3 was really enjoyable. I really have to thank the team for making the right decision of putting me onto wet tyres at the right time. The safety car helped me close in the gap and from then on I just had to make sure I made no mistake. I am very happy to have finally won my first race. I really need to thank the Sahara Force India Academy for their continued support. Going forward, I still need to gain some pace and also work on my race starts."