Shorts: Jehan races to commanding win at Monza

India's Jehan Daruvala sealed his second Formula 2 win with a dominating drive in the second sprint race in Monza on Saturday.              

The Red Bull Junior started second at the 'Temple of Speed' behind German racer David Beckman. As the lights went out, Jehan had an excellent start and braked really late to make an excellent move into the first corner.

An incident behind resulted in a Virtual Safety Car situation. The moment racing resumed, Jehan put his head down and drove a clean consistent race.

The first few laps had Beckman within DRS range, but Jehan kept his cool and slowly inched away, opening a one second margin. Once Beckman was out of DRS range, Jehan steadily increased his lead every lap.

Three laps before the finish, Jehan had already opened a comfortable five second margin. Beckman under pressure fell down to third while Dutchman, Bent Viscaal moved into second. Soon former F3 Champion, Robert Shwartzman from Russia also overtook the German.

Jehan's dominance meant he won the race by over six seconds, ahead of Viscaal & Shwartzman. This was Jehan's third podium of the season and second Formula 2 victory after the Sakhir Grand Prix weekend last season

"It feels truly special to hear the Indian national anthem on the top step of the podium. Winning at Monza is every racer's dream. I had qualified well and knew I had the pace to win.

"Getting ahead of David at the start and then breaking were critical moments in the race. A big thank you to Carlin for the great car. I am looking forward to the feature race tomorrow," said an elated Jehan.

Jehan's fantastic performance in qualifying saw him qualify second, just 0.04 seconds shy of pole. He will start the Feature Race tomorrow in second position, where all racers need to complete a mandatory pit stop.

Ramkumar-Balaji win Cassis Challenger title

India's Ramkumar Ramanathan and N Sriram Balaji on Saturday lifted the doubles title at the ATP Cassis Challenger event with a three-set win over Mexican pair of Hans Hach Verdugo and Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela.

The third seed Indian pair defeated the second seed rivals 6-4, 3-6, 10-6 to win the euro 44820 hard court tournament.

They split Euro 2670 as prize money and earned 80 ranking points each.

It is Ramkumar's first doubles Challenger title since his triumph at the Bengaluru Open in February 2020 with compatriot Purav Raja.

For Balaji, it's his first doubles trophy since he won the Taipei Challenger in April 2019 with Israel's Jonathan Erlich.

Ramkumar will now head straight to Finland for the Davis Cup tie, starting September 18.

Ideally, Balaji should have also flown to Finland since the Indian squad has only five members and an extra hitting partner would have helped the singles players prepare better.