The Swiss racer stepped third onto the podium at Spa-Francorchamps after a brilliant performance in his Campos Racing-run MoonMobile Dallara car during Saturday’s sprint race
Campos Racing scored its third podium of the 2022 FIA Formula 2 Championship season with Ralph Boschung delivering a stellar drive in his MoonMobile Dallara car. Boschung was forced to withdraw from Barcelona, Monaco and Silverstone rounds due to issues in his neck and skipped three other additional rounds at the Red Bull Ring, Le Castellet and Hungaroring. The Swiss racer couldn’t have had a better comeback. Precisely, Boschung had already finished third at Imola and now equals his season’s high with another outstanding performance. German Lirim Zendeli, replacing Briton Olli Caldwell – who was forced to sit out after receiving his 12th penalty point of the season at Hungaroring–, completed a positive weekend for Campos Racing.
On Friday, Boschung made a fantastic start in the Belgian Ardennes. In fact, the Swiss driver led the way for Campos Racing by posting a best lap of 2m01.376s. He proved to be back in form rapidly! Zendeli round out the top five with a lap time of 2m01.844s. Despite changeable weather on Friday, qualifying session took place in dry conditions. Boschung finally set a best lap of 1m59.126s to start from tenth on Sunday’s feature race and, more importantly, on pole position of Saturday’s reverse grid. Zendeli clocked a best lap time of 1m59.704s, putting him on row ten for both races.
Saturday’s sprint race, consisting of 18 laps, saw Boschung fending his rivals off when the lights went out. The driver of Campos Racing completed the first lap leading the field but Liam Lawson overtook Boschung on Kemmel on lap 2. When the DRS was enabled after four laps, Boschung managed to close back up to Lawson and, at the same time, was trying to keep Jack Doohan and Richard Verschoor at bay. The Swiss ace was a solid second-place runner with his gap extended to over two seconds. But Logan Sargeant crashed at Pouhon and the safety car was deployed and Boschung lost his margin. At the restart, with four laps to go, Doohan took advantage from DRS to move past Boschung for second. Anyway, the Swiss driver still fended off late charging Felipe Drugovich, who had pitted for a new set of soft tires during the safety car period, to cross the finish line in third place. Zendeli, who also made a pit stop for soft tires, finished in 20th place.
Sunday’s 25-lap feature race brought more chances for points. Boschung chose to start on the option tire and Zendeli, from the back of the field, made the opening stint on the harder yellow compound. At the start, Boschung gained two places but he dropped later to 11th to nurse his set of soft tires before making his mandatory pit stop. Finally, Boschung pitted on lap 7 and back on track he posted several fastest laps. His teammate Zendeli ran in fifth place after making his pit stop on lap 14. In the final stages of the race, both drivers struggled with tire wear. At the checkered flag, Boschung finished in 14th place and Zendeli failed to reach the finish line due to a technical issue with two laps to go.
The FIA Formula 2 will head to Holland for a new round at Zandvoort next weekend.
