Ralph Boschung won the Formula 2 sprint race in Bahrain, taking his first victory in seven years.
The Campos Racing driver, who is in his seventh season at this level, last won in GP3 at the Red Bull Ring in 2016. He took a comfortable victory in today’s season opener by 10.8 seconds over Dennis Hauger.
Boschung and Hauger and were joined on the podium by Victor Martins. The ART driver’s team mate Theo Pourchaire gained five positions in the race, but Ayumu Iwasa held him off for fifth.
Sauber academy driver Pourchaire claimed a dominant pole by seven-tenths yesterday. With the top 10 from qualifying reversed for the sprint race, Boschung lined up in first.
The pole-winner made a strong start to keep the lead, but fellow front row started Roman Stanek made a disastrous getaway, falling to fourth. Arthur Leclerc and Ayumu Iwasa got near-perfect starts and were wheel-to-wheel through sectors one and two, the Red Bull junior ultimately claiming second place in an exciting battle.
Leclerc’s race was soon ruined by a ten-second stop-and-go penalty for a starting grid infringement, as team personnel were still working on his car just moments before the lights went green for the formation lap. Leclerc was baffled over team radio, and he wasn’t the only driver who suffered this fate, as Isaac Hadjar collected the same penalty.
Elsewhere, Pourchaire rapidly progressed through the field after gaining three positions to seventh on the opening lap, before another three by lap five. However, defending Formula 3 champion Martins was also on top form making his way up to the top three early on having started in eighth.
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On lap nine, while Boschung was comfortably leading by three-seconds, the battle for second escalated as Martins made a lunge down the inside of turn one to overtake Iwasa. While a poor exit at turn six then allowed Iwasa to regain second, Martins completed another move on lap 13 in a constant back-and-forth battle between the two drivers.
At this point, less than a second separated second to fifth places, and positions were constantly being switched. Pourchaire overtook Iwasa on the inside of turn 10 before the Hitech Grand Prix driver regained third on the straight which followed.
But on lap 14, Pourchaire dropped another position as Hauger’s patience paid off, with the Red Bull junior then taking third the following lap by overtaking Iwasa at turn one. While the battle for second initially seemed…
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