The Swiss driver finished third in his Campos Racing-run Dallara during Sunday’s feature race. In an incident-marred race, which saw two red flags, Boschung brought a fantastic podium home. Caldwell also made a positive debut in the FIA Formula 2 Championship
Campos Racing has achieved another milestone in the FIA Formula 2 Championship with a brilliant performance coming from Ralph Boschung, who has stepped up third onto the podium in Jeddah. Boschung’s first FIA F2 rostrum arrived as everything finally has come together on the ultrafast Saudi circuit with the Swiss racer delivering a faultless driving. Briton Olli Caldwell, who was making his debut in the Formula 2-based racing series, completed a promising debut showing consistent, solid pace.
On Friday, Boschung made a strong start to the weekend setting the 2nd-fastest lap time during morning free practice. Boschung clocked a time of 1m42.807s after completing a total of 16 laps. His teammate Caldwell posted a best lap of 1m43.985s, which was the 15th-fastest lap time in the sheets. Later in qualifying, Boschung continued his strong run and was in contention for a top-five for the entire session. Finally, the Swiss driver qualified in seventh place with a lap time of 1m41.532s despite he was forced to abort his final flying lap due to traffic. In that moment, Boschung was further lowering his sectors. Caldwell posted a lap time of 1m42.919s and set to start from row ten the following day.
Boschung made a great start on Saturday’s first sprint race and, from fourth on the reverse starting grid, he moved up to third. Boschung ran in third place behind Marcus Armstrong and Liam Lawson in the first part of the race but brakes issues finally cost him a podium shot. Boschung took the checkered flag in 15th place with Caldwell three places further adrift. In the afternoon, Boschung and Caldwell really pushed hard to move into the points-paying positions but, considering how difficult is to overtake on the Jeddah track, both crossed the finish line in ninth and twelfth place.
On Sunday, everything was set for a challenging feature race. When the lights went out, Boschung gained no less than four places at the start and moved up to third. Unfortunately, Théo Pourchaire stalled his car and Enzo Fittipaldi crashed into the back of the French driver’s Dallara. The incident brought the red flag and both drivers, in conscious state, were transferred to the hospital. After half an hour the feature race restarted but with a new race distance of 20 minutes plus a lap. The second start took place in rolling start format with Boschung maintaining his third place behind Oscar Piastri and Robert Schwartzman. The Swiss driver kept Guanyu Zhou at bay until another red flag was brought out. Caldwell spins out and his car was hit by Guilherme Samaia. The race wasn’t resumed.
The FIA Formula 2 season finale will take place at Yas Marina Circuit next weekend.
Photos: Dutch Agency
