Daruvala takes second place for PREMA Racing in Race 1
PREMA Racing experienced a challenging day at Bahrain International Circuit in Race 2 of the FIA Formula 2 Championship at Sakhir. Coming from a podium finish in yesterday's race 1, Indian Jehan Daruvala had a troubled start that saw him fall out of the top-10.
Despite showing good pace and having potential for a recovery, Daruvala was touched by a contender and forced to pit to replace his front wing. With little to no chances to go back to the points, late safety car brought him back to the pits for new tyres. The gamble didn't pay off dramatically and Daruvala eventually finished P14.
Dennis Hauger was forced to start from the pit lane. The Norweigian put up a stellar recovery all the way up to the points zone. On the latest safety car though, he was also brought to the pits in an effort to give him fresher tyres for an additional attack. Unfortunately, a pit miscue sent him off with the front left wheel not firmly attached and Hauger was left with no option rather than climbing out of his car to retire.
# 1 - Dennis Hauger
"I made a mistake at the start and stalled the car so I had to take off from the pits. On the hard tyres, the car felt quite OK so I gained a few positions. I went in for softs and it was good again until I had to fight with Nissany which damaged the tyres a bit. I tried to keep them alive once I passed, and in the closing stages, we tried to pit for hards. I got the green and so I went but one wheel was not fitted properly. It was a bit of a shame to end a tough weekend overall. At least we made our way up decently and without the pit-stop, we would have been around seventh with the others making contact. We have some positives to take but the main thing now is to keep our head down and work for qualifying."
# 2 - Jehan Daruvala
"A bad start put us on a back foot, but to be honest, the race was still alive when we put the options on. Then obviously my front wing got damaged. I was getting by Nissany and he just swerved into me, knocking my wing off. After that, the race was pretty much finished. The only positive to take is that we had great pace on options, but apart from that it was pretty much a race to forget."