Ralph Boschung took a commanding maiden FIA Formula 2 victory in the season-opening Sprint Race in Bahrain, going virtually unchallenged for the entire race and winning by over 10 seconds.
The Swiss driver then backed up his victory with second place in the Feature Race, after another superb drive for Campos Racing, who lead the Teams’ standings.
Having qualified in tenth, Ralph started Saturday’s Sprint Race on reverse-grid pole position. He got a great start to hold the lead, and never looked back, stretching his advantage to take his first victory in the series, which he dedicated to Adrian Campos.
On Sunday, Ralph avoided an incident on the first lap to move up into fourth, before making a decisive overtake on PREMA’s Oliver Bearman to claim third. Following a short Safety Car period, he passed teammate Kush Maini into Turn 1 and threatened to take the lead from Théo Pourchaire until the Frenchman pitted.
After every driver had made their mandatory pitstops, Ralph was back in second place and stayed there for the rest of the 32-lap race, facing no challenge from behind. 28 points represents Ralph’s best F2 weekend of his career, and leaves him second in the standings after the first of 14 rounds.
Ralph Boschung: “I’m so happy with this weekend. Yesterday’s victory was an important moment in my career, it gave me a lot of confidence as we were so dominant. We worked really hard over the winter to have competitive race pace, and today we made it work using the alternate strategy, which wasn’t the ideal tactic after the Safety Car came out so early. Despite this, we still finished second, having started tenth, so huge credit has to go to the crew. We’re top of the Teams’ standings, which is amazing. We know it’s only one weekend of a long season and we must continue to work hard and keep up this fantastic start to the year. Thanks to Raphaëlle Lota at Casa Andrea and Carl at The Moon Group for making this result possible and I’m already excited for Jeddah.”
Raphaëlle Lota, Casa Andrea: “I’m very proud of my protégé Ralph! He has shown his talent and capability throughout the weekend in a competitive car. What a delight to see the Swiss flag above the F2 podium twice. A massive BRAVO!”
Carl Runefelt: “We went to the moon this weekend! Ralph did an amazing job in the car, on Saturday he absolutely dominated and he drove brilliantly again today. I always knew he was capable of this level of performance and he proved it here. I’m so happy and can’t wait for the rest of the season.”