PREMA Racing's Jehan Daruvala delivered the team its fifth podium finish of the 2022 FIA Formula 2 Championship weekend at Baku as the challenging Azerbaijani street circuit welcomed teams and drivers for the Sprint Race.
Starting from the third spot on the grid, the 23-year-old Indian had a sensational opening lap. By playing clever at the first corner, Daruvala was able to pass two cars in the second one, pulling away with remarkable pace.
However, a couple of safety-car situations came to make it more difficult for him, wiping away his advantage, and at the re-start after the second one saw him drop back to P2 in a tight contention. Despite the pace, Daruvala could not make up the position lost, but was able to celebrate his fifth podium of 2022.
Hauger had a tougher race starting from P8 of the reverse row as he was caught in the initial melee. The Norwegian, making his first race at Baku, fell victim to the unforgiving circuit layout and made contact with the barriers, being forced to retire. He will start the Feature Race from P3.
#1 - Dennis Hauger
"I made a mistake while overtaking, I pushed it a bit too hard in the dirt and I think it made me lock up. The pace itself was pretty decent, struggled a bit with the rears, but other than that we were looking quite strong. I had a good launch ,but for some reason, I struggled to get on the power in corners 1-2-3-4 on the first lap. We were a bit compromised, but we made up some position, although it made our race tougher in general. We'll look if it's something I did or that happened on the car. Anyway, we know we have the pace, we were catching up on Vips, who is starting up front in the feature race. We can be confident of where we are, and we are going to take the positives from today and use them tomorrow."
#2 - Jehan Daruvala
"P2 in the sprint race, I'd say mixed feelings. We were really quick, one of the quickest cars. I had a good start and I braked at my reference at the first corner while the others were very late so I tried to get a good exit. We were three abreast heading in turn 2 and I just got the car stopped and moved into the lead. I built a safe margin, but then came the safety cars. I'm a little disappointed with myself because I was leading and I lost the position. That's racing. If we had more laps I could have made the time back and try to fight. I lost the race in one lap but from P8, I'm confident that with the same pace tomorrow we can move forward and fight for a podium."