-20 second post-race penalty
-Currently in fourth place in the driver’s championship
Jehan Daruvala endured a tough weekend at Spielberg during the Austrian F2 Grand Prix after being given a post-race 20-second penalty dropping him from second to 12th place. It had been issued to his team after stewards deemed that the Prema Racing team had attempted to dry the track surface at Jehan’s grid spot before the race started.
The time penalty hit Jehan hard as he drove a brilliant race to go from 11th on the grid to second by the end of the feature race. He even looked set to inherit the lead after winner Richard Verschoor was disqualified for a fuel irregularity.
Commenting on the race, Jehan said, “I’m gutted. All season luck has been against us and just when I thought things were finally going our way we get hit with a penalty. We did everything right today. I was expecting a tough race from 11th on the grid and, while it was tricky, we read the conditions perfectly today. The team made the right strategy call on the tyres and I was able to maximise it with my pace in the wet.”
“It’s difficult to find the positives after having a result we fought hard for taken away from us in this fashion. We could have taken big points off our rivals today but I can still take encouragement from my pace today. We now have a weekend off before the next run of back-to-back races and it’s now full focus on Paul Ricard and Budapest. We just need to keep pushing and I’m sure our day will come,” he added.
