Tribune News Service
New Delhi, June 24
Jehan Daruvala became the third Indian, after Narain Karthikeyan and Karun Chandhok, to drive a Formula One car as he made a successful test debut with McLaren.
The 23-year-old drove the MCL35M on Tuesday and Wednesday at the British Grand Prix venue Silverstone. This was the first time Daruvala sat in a Formula One car. He completed over 130 laps over two days. He is now eligible for a Formula One super licence.
“I really enjoyed my first time driving a Formula One car,” Daruvala said. “I felt immediately at home. While it was physically more demanding than anything I have driven in the past, I didn’t have any issues with my fitness. As a result, we were able to work through the run plan well and complete everything we had mapped out. We did a mixture of high-fuel long runs as well as shorter, low-fuel runs on different tyre compounds,” he added.
“That gave me a good understanding of how teams operate on an F1 weekend. Overall, I’m very pleased with how the two days went, how I coped and the mileage we were able to complete. I felt I was able to push closer to the limit with every lap and I can’t wait to drive one of these cars again,” he added.
Daruvala currently has a seat with Italian team Prema Racing in the Formula 2 Championship, which is a feeder series for Formula One.
Gill fastest in shakedown
Gaurav Gill kicked off his Safari Rally Kenya campaign by clocking the fastest time in the shakedown, which is part of the official itinerary for setting up the pace for the rally in the WRC 2 grid. Gill, driving the SS1-Super Special Kasarani, clocked the fastest timing of 3:32.9 in WRC2 grid. The rally started from Nairobi on Thursday. “We had a good start in the shakedown for our team which helped us today to mark another fastest completion,” Gill said.
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