Jehan Daruvala shines in Italian karting

Force India Academy driver Jehan Daruvala tested himself against the best karters of the world here as part of his preparations for the final round of the British KF3 Championships, to be staged next weekend in Shenington, England.

Jehan put in a good performance in the CIK World Championship at the southern Italian track of Sarno over the past weekend qualifying second overall and first in his group. The heats, taking place on a heavily wet track, provided a steep learning curve for the Indian talent, who quickly mastered the lines on the slippery track and managed to rack up three podiums, including a win, to set him up competitively for the pre-final and final.

A good performance in the pre-final was rewarded with second place, allowing Jehan to start the final race of the weekend in P4. Bad luck struck the 14-year-old as a rival collided with him, relegating the faultless Jehan to the back of the grid, in a daunting 33rd position: the youngster had to resort to all his talent to recover up to tenth place in just 15 laps, with laptimes significantly faster than the leaders.

Jehan said: "It was a great week from a learning perspective. The continuous change in weather conditions and the ups and downs of the weekend will all add to my experience. I am disappointed with the result in the final as I had the confidence and the speed to win this race on one of my favourite tracks.

"With a clean start, I feel I would have had a great chance of winning or at least being on the podium. The support from the team was brilliant. The kart was running really well. In the rain, the guidance from Ricky Flynn and Terry was so important for me," said the Sahara Force India young talent.