Daruvala Scores Maiden F2 Win, Shock Debut F1 Win For Sergio Perez, Sebastian Ogier Seals 7th WRC Title And More

F2 

Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala capped off his rookie F2 campaign in style during the 2020 season finale of the FIA Formula 2 Championship at Bahrain. Qualifying 3rd, the Indian driver may have had a disappointing run to 7th in the feature race, but he surely made up for it in the sprint race. Starting second on the grid, the Indian driver had an intense race-long scrap with Dan Ticktum, with Daruvala winning out to score his maiden win in Formula 2. At the end of it all, Daruvala finished 12th overall in the drivers standings. As things stand, the Indian driver is yet to reveal which team he’ll be competing for in the 2021 season.

F1 

The 2020 Formula One season threw in another chaotic race when it returned to Bahrain for the Sakhir Grand Prix. The biggest headline being, recently crowned 7-time world champion Lewis Hamilton testing positive for COVID-19 and being ruled out of the race. Replacing him at Mercedes was George Russell. It looked like the perfect debut for Russell after snatching the lead from teammate Valtteri Bottas and enroute to a maiden race win. But the race turned on its head for Mercedes on lap 62/87 as a tyre mix-up error pushed the two Mercedes to 4th and 5th. Russell was on a charge to take back the lead, but a puncture pretty much ruined any chances of that and he had to settle for 9th at the flag.  

When the dust settled, it was none other than Racing Point’s Sergio Perez, who snatched a surprise maiden win after a lap 1 incident saw him 18th and last. Following him was Renault’s Esteban Ocon to score his maiden podium in second place, with Perez’ teammate Lance Stroll 3rd. Perez became the second Mexican F1 race winner after Pedro Rodriguez back in the 1970 Belgian Grand Prix. This leaves a fantastic battle for 3rd in the constructors heading into the season finale at Abu Dhabi next week.

WRC

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The season finale of the 2020 World Rally Championship at Monza saw Sébastien Ogier finally clinch title number seven by taking the overall stage win for Toyota Gazoo Racing by 13.9 seconds over 2019 champion Ott Tanak. Rounding off the podium was Tanak’s Hyundai Motorsport teammate Dani Sordo. Ogier went into the season finale with a 14 point deficit to teammate Elfyn Evans, but Evans’ maiden title hopes disappeared due to a crash, leaving Ogier on a smooth run to the title by 8 points. Hyundai Motorsport sealed a consecutive constructors title which mirrors the 2019 overall standings where a Toyota driver ( Ott Tanak) took the drivers title and Hyundai took the constructors title.

MotoGP

While the MotoGP paddock awaits Marc Marqurez’ return to the grid for the 2021 season, that wait may take longer than we thought. The 8-time world champion underwent a third operation on his right arm due to the slow healing of the humerus bone. Reports suggest that this surgery may put Marquez out of action for another 6 months, which would rule him out for almost six races of the 2021 MotoGP season. 

Formula E 

Following Audi’s  recent bombshell that it will pull out of Formula E as a factory team at the end of this season, another German manufacturer team has followed suit. BMW confirmed its withdrawal from Formula E post this season, with the reasoning being ‘essentially exhausting its opportunities’ for developing its technologies inFormula E. BMW has yet to announce any future plans post this withdrawal, but this another surprising blow to Formula E. 

Indian motorsport

With the 2020 Indian National Rally Championship season barely a week away from kicking off,  JK Tyre have announced their lineup consisting of Gaurav Gill and Amitrajit Ghosh, running an R2-spec XUV300. The five round season will commence on December 16 at Itanagar. 

The past seven days have seen plenty of manufacturer withdrawals being announced. And now, Volkswagen has revealed that it will halt all its motorsports commitments as part of a ‘company realignment’. That said, the company's motorsport plans for 2021 in India remain unchanged for now, and it is still planning to run the new Polo Cup.

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