The Spanish-based racing team and Boschung tried to gamble on soft tires with a very long second stint in the streets of Baku and finally paid off with the Swiss taking the checkered flag in ninth place starting from the back of the field. Caldwell’s weekend dashed by racing incidents
Campos Racing fought back in Baku, home of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix this weekend, to add more points to their tally in the 2022 FIA Formula 2 Championship season. Swiss Ralph Boschung and Campos Racing completed a fantastic feature race on Sunday after putting in a superb recovery drive from the back of the starting grid. Boschung and Campos Racing started on the medium tire but were forced to switch to soft compound in order to take advantage during a safety car period. The tire gamble finally worked and Boschung finished in ninth place. More importantly, it’s worth underlining that Boschung struggled with neck issues once again after his crash on Saturday. The Swiss racer experienced pain under heavy braking and his participation was under risk on Sunday until the very last moment. His goal was to make it to the finish but always avoiding any incident that could worsen his condition. Unfortunately, Briton Olli Caldwell saw his two races hampered by other rivals’ driving errors and couldn’t secure a points-paying result.
On Friday, Boschung made a very competitive comeback after skipping last two rounds due to neck issues. The Swiss racer finished 8th-fastest in the morning free practice session with a lap time of 1m56.911s. Caldwell, on his debut in the streets of Baku, clocked a lap time of 1m59.820s with a clear goal in mind, avoiding any mistake to maximize time on track. As always, qualifying turned into a lottery due to yellow flags and the drivers struggling to put all sectors together. It was particularly the case of both Campos Racing drivers. Boschung posted a lap time of 1m55.140s, who put him 18th on the starting grid. Caldwell’s personal best was a lap of 1m56.247s, four places behind Boschung.
Saturday’s Sprint race had a crazy start with Boschung losing a couple of laps as another driver forced him off the track. Soon, Boschung and Caldwell started to move through the field by passing Clément Novalak, Cem Bölükbaşı and Amaury Cordeel. The Swiss racer still gained two other places when he moved past Marino Sato and Jake Hughes. The safety car was deployed twice in the closing stages of the race. By then, Boschung had moved into the top-ten and was in contention for points. Unfortunately, a clash with Callan Williams prevented Boschung from finishing. Caldwell managed to cross the checkered flag but a lap down as he was forced to make an unscheduled pit stop after a collision with another car during a race start.
On Sunday, it was expected to be a tough race from the back. Boschung chose to start on the medium compound and managed to avoid any incident on the opening lap. Unfortunately, one of them took Caldwell out of the race when Cordeel crashed into the Briton in the first lap. In green flag conditions, Boschung moved up to second place behind leader Williams as the pit window had opened for the drivers starting on the soft compound. However, shortly after another safety car was deployed and Campos Racing made a call to pit on lap 13. With 16 laps to go it was a hard task. But Boschung mastered the tire wear and degradation and fended off his rivals to cross the finish line in ninth place.
The seventh round of the 2022 season will take place at Silverstone on 2-3 July.
