Photo: F3 Asian Championship
Mumbai Falcons’ Jehan Daruvala was one of the quickest drivers through pre-event testing and free practice for Asian Formula 3’s Yas Marina Circuit finale.
In the last round at Dubai Autodrome, Red Bull junior Daruvala was hit by considerable misfortune in terms of a clash with another driver and a straightline speed concern. He also had a stall at the start of one of the races, and left the weekend with a single points finish in fifth and a slim chance of title glory but still in mathematical contention.
The final weekend started with second place in test session one, 0.144 seconds off fellow Formula 2 driver Guanyu Zhou’s 2m08.114s benchmark for Abu Dhabi Racing by Prema.
In Thursday’s second session, Daruvala then went to the top with a 2m07.176s lap, 0.331s up on Alpine junior Zhou.
Friday morning’s free practice session had Evans GP’s Patrik Pasma rise to the top with the first sub-2m07s lap of the weekend. His 2m06.935s time was 0.077s fastest than next-best Daruvala, and Zhou completed the top three.
Hitech GP’s Roman Stanek was fourth fastest, with Pinnacle Motorsport’s points leader Pierre-Louis Chovet 0.385s back in fifth. Zhou’s team-mate David Vidales and Stanek’s Williams-backed team-mate Roy Nissany also set laps that surpassed the top times from testing.
Roberto Faria (Motorscape), Kush Maini (Mumbai Falcons) and Ayumu Iwasa (Hitech) completed the free practice top 10.