PREMA Racing, Daruvala fight back to podium finish
PREMA Racing finally fought back to the podium in Race 1 for the FIA Formula 2 Championship at Monza. Starting from the fifth spot on the reverse top-1' grid from qualifying, Jehan Daruvala showed both pace and consistency. At the start, he quickly jumped to P4 and kept his cool in the whole, hard-fought race. The 23-year-old Indian defended himself well at the re-start of an early safety car before securing P3.
Fellow Red Bull Junior driver Dennis Hauger fought his way back towards the front after a tough qualifying session. Starting from P19, he was in P16 when the safety-car was thrown in for three laps to remove the stopped car of Drugovich. The 18-year-old Norwegian continued his comeback in the second half of the race and broke into the top-10 on lap 21. Then, he eventually moved to P9. Hauger also set the fastest lap of the race and was awarded one bonus point.
For Daruvala it was the seventh podium of the season. Both drivers can now rely on a good boost of motivation ahead of tomorrow's feature Race.
As a side note, everyone at PREMA Racing wishes to congratulate Felipe Drugovich on winning the 2022 FIA Formula 2 Championship.
#1 - Dennis Hauger
"Decent race, it was a good feeling to get sort of forward again. Obviously, not the optimal starting point but I think we did the maximum that we could and a great step from yesterday. Hopefully, we can do a similar job tomorrow and keep it going."
#2 - Jehan Daruvala
"It feels good to be back on the podium. We had a tough few weeks, but today we had strong pace. We've had it all weekend but we also made a step forward. I'm even more pleased about that because with a fast car we can recover in the race and gives me good confidence to fight again for a podium if not even the win. Thanks to the guys and hopefully tomorrow we can have another good one."