Jehan Daruvala completed a hat-trick of podiums after he stormed up the grid from eighth to second, before settling for the third position in the FIA Formula 3 Championship, which runs as a support event to the main F1 Grand Prix (GP).

Jehan’s emphatic victory on Saturday in the feature race meant he had to start from eighth on Sunday, due to the regulations which dictate that the top eight finishers are reversed, for the start of the sprint race. This was the multiple International Karting Champion’s third consecutive podium in four races.

He started well but fell to tenth on lap one, once the lights went out at the F1 circuit in Le Castellet. Jehan then battled hard with Logan Sargeant and Juri Vips before overtaking both. He was then much quicker than the racers ahead of him and began to pass them one by one, to steadily move up the order.

Alex Peroni from Australia, meanwhile continued to lead the race, taking advantage of the battles behind him. Jehan was soon up to fifth, but faced quite a task, with a gap of over 2.4 seconds to the pack of cars ahead. He pushed hard and managed to successfully close the gap and move into fourth.

Jehan’s Prema racing teammate Robert Shwartzman had, in the meantime, grabbed the race lead, with Brazilian Pedro Piquet in second. Jehan had closed the gap, overtaking Red Bull Racing Junior, Yuki Tsunoda from Japan, to move up into third and soon made an excellent move to overtake Piquet for second.

Not content with second, Jehan tried to close the gap to Shwartzman, but in the process of pushing extremely hard right through the entire race and the numerous battles he had along the way, his tyres were beginning to degrade. He lost a bit of pace and was re-passed by Piquet, who was also able to use the DRS to his advantage.

Jehan comfortably held onto third, crossing the finish line behind Shwartzman and Piquet and 5.4 seconds ahead of Verschoor, of MP Motorsport.

Jehan’s continuing impressive performances in front of the Formula 1 teams at the Formula 1 support races ensures that he continues to lie second in the championship with 58 points. His next race will be at the RedBull Ring Circuit in Spielberg along with the Austrian Grand Prix the coming weekend.