European F3: Jehan Daruvala scores podium in Race 3 at Pau to open 2018 season

The 2018 FIA European Formula 3 Championship kicked-off at Pau in France with Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala finishing 12th and seventh in the two practice sessions, while teammate and fellow Indian Ameya Vaidyanathan was 23rd and 21st respectively.

Qualifying was divided into Group A and B owing to it being a short street circuit. Daruvala went in Group A and was on pace throughout the session. The Force India protégé even topped at one time before finishing fourth with a time of 1m10.304s – 0.282s off Prema’s Guanyu Zhou.

Vaidyanathan was in Group B where he finished 11th with a time of 1m11.873s – improving by nearly three seconds from his practice time. Overall, it was Motopark’s Dan Ticktum from Group B who took pole and will start alongside Zhou, followed by Carlin’s Ferdinand Habsburg and Prema’s Ralf Aron.

With alternate group formation, Daruvala was to start in eighth alongside HitechGP’s Alex Palou, while Vaidyanathan would start 22nd on the last row for the first race.

The second part of qualifying on Saturday afternoon ran on a damp track with Daruvala missing a near pole after being held up on his fast lap. He eventually finished fourth in his Group A, which was the lead group due to pole for teammate Sacha Fenestraz.

The Frenchman will have Palou at his side with Ahmed and Schrer behind. Daruvala will start seventh alongside ma-con’s Julian Hanses. Vaidyanathan was 12th in his Group B to start 22nd in Race 2.

Meanwhile, Race 3 pole went to Ahmed from Group A with Palou starting alongside, and Aron and Scherer in Row 2. Daruvala finished third in his Group A and fith overall after another hold up on his fast lap. Vaidyanathan was 22nd.

Race 1

The start of the first race in the 2018 season for Daruvala wasn’t the best as he dropped two places to Ahmed and Prema’s Marcus Armstrong in the opening lap. He was tucked behind the two for the remainder of the race.

A handful of laps into the race, Prema’s Robert Shwartzman dropped out promoting Daruvala to eighth. The Mumbaikar then performed a move on Palou while Ahmed was also in the mix to move up to seventh.

He started to put in faster laps in his chase of Fenestraz, but a suspension failure on Lap 13 ended his run. Vaidyanathan, meanwhile, already retired on Lap 8. At the front, it was Zhou who managed to hold off teammate Aron and Ticktum to win the opening encounter.

Race 2

It was a steady to the second race under cloudy conditions on the streets of Pau. Daruvala stayed in seventh behind Ahmed who dropped from third to sixth while Hanses was behind the Indian in the order.

It was a close fight with Daruvala staying around half a second of Ahmed for the majority of the race while he closed in on his HitechGP teammate Ben Hingeley. However, the tight circuit proved too much for an overtake move.

Eventually, Daruvala had to settle for sixth finishing 0.754s behind Ahmed while Vaidyanathan was 16th in the race which was won by their teammate Fenestraz who survived a scare with Scherer at the start. Palou and Prema's Marcus Armstrong completed the podium.

Race 3

It was a damp start to the final race of the 2018 season-opener with Daruvala rocketing to third from fifth on the grid to line himself behind race leader Aron and Ahmed. Interesting, this was the third race in succession that he found himself behind the HitechGP driver.

Usually the wet conditions pose a challenge for Daruvala and he had to be extra cautious after hitting a kerb hard - fearing of another suspension failure. This allowed Aron and Ahmed to build a gap, while the Mumbaikar also had to keep Scherer behind.

An off for Armstrong and Habsburg pulled out the safety car which turned into a red flag situation as rain continued to fall. However, with the conditions not improving, the officials decided to call off the race with over 12 minutes still remaining.

With the Top 3 settled from the start, there was not much change in the running order. For Daruvala, it was a much needed result after near misses in terms of pole and race results. Vaidyanathan, on the other hand, finished 16th after starting from the back of the field.

The championship now heads to Hungaroring for Round 2 in the 2018 season during the June 1-3 weekend, with Daruvala in eighth on 15.5 points - after only half points were given for the red-flagged race as Fenestraz leads with 37. Vaidyanathan is 12th in rookie list with three points.

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