(Motorsports news) Daruvala had an abysmal qualifying lap time, which was only good enough to place him 14th. However, after some checks, Prema discovered an unnamed component issue on his car which they resolved but still had a major task in hand to recover some points for the team.

Starting the sprint race from 13th on the grid, Daruvala had a monumental task to get in the points but he gained a handful of places to finish seventh and collected two points for the championship battle. As Liam Lawson continued his fine start to the season and won the sprint race for this third consecutive podium this season, he was followed by another red bull junior in Juri Vips as Jack Hughes had initially finished third in the race but was stripped off his podium following the stewards found a technical non conformity in his car, meaning pole sitter Felipe Durgovich finished third. It was a chaotic race as it had three safety cars which also meant that sprint race pole sitter and Daruvala’s teammate Dennis Hauger, who led the race from start to front was given a 10 second penalty following a bizarre incident

In the feature race, Daruvala started from 14th on the grid and subsequently started the race on soft tyres, Daruvala had a blistering start and quickly picked up some positions. He then pitted early which really made the difference as others were struggling to keep tyre temperature but he pulled off a consistent second stint. In addition to the places he gained out on track, the 23-year-old ultimately moved further up once all the late stoppers dived into the pits.He could have even challenged Verschoor for second but a yellow flag at the end disrupted his momentum. Ultimately his brilliant charge up the field saw him clinch a third spot on the podium, behind winner Felipe Drugovich and Richard Verschoor. With this result Daruvala is currently sixth in the overall championship standings with 25 points, same as Theo Pourchaire and 18 points off new F2 leader Drugovich. The next round will be at Imola on April 22-24

Speaking after the race, Daruvala said the drive highlighted Prema’s strong race pace, but added that it’s important to start qualifying in front from now on. "I think it was a very good race overall. To be on the podium from P14 was the best we could do. After the issues in qualifying, to be seventh and third in the races was damage limitation. I think our strategy worked quite well. I wanted clean air as we knew that the car was really good in clean air, so we made the call to box early, and it paid off. We had a great pace after that, and in the end, it is what gave us the podium. Going from 14th to 3rd gives me a lot of confidence, now we need to start more at the front

Also read: Jehan Daruvala finished 2nd at F2's first sprint race of the season