Formula 2: Dramatic podium for Ralph Boschung 🎥
FINALLY DONE In the third race of the FIA Formula 2 in Saudi Arabia, Ralph Boschung from Valais came to the longed-for first podium. Due to race abandonment due to accidents, only half points were awarded.
The scenes with the accidents that led to the interruption and premature end.
Ralph Boschung has been racing more or less regularly in FIA Formula 2 since 2017, and the 24-year-old from Valais has never done as well as he did in the season that is now drawing to a close - although it wasn't until Sunday evening in Saudi Arabia that he scored his first podium.
Serious launch accident
His deserved third place came under dramatic conditions. Starting seventh for the main race, Boschung catapulted to third position on the first lap. Unfortunately, there was a serious rear-end collision at the start between the stopped Frenchman Théo Pourchaire and the Brazilian Enzo Fittpialdi, who crashed into his rear.
Both drivers were taken to hospital. While Pourchaire himself gave the all-clear, Fittipaldi was diagnosed with a fracture in his right foot.
After an interruption, there was a restart, but the race, still limited to 20 minutes plus one lap, again lasted just five laps before another accident without serious consequences led to the final abandonment.
Hard to believe
Australian Oscar Piastri won the mini-race ahead of his Russian stablemate Robert Shwartzman and Ralph Boschung. For the Swiss driver from the Spanish Campos team, for which he will also drive in 2022, it was the long-awaited first podium in the second highest division.
Ralph Boschung: "Even though it wasn't a normal race, I'm happy about it. I'm also happy for my team. I was able to avoid Pourchaire and outbrake Zhou in the first corner, after which I was third, which was hard to believe. Starting was my problem for a long time, but we've managed to improve that from race to race year by year and now I think we've figured out the trick."
Decision next weekend
The only downer: because of the shortness of the race, only half points were awarded. Because Boschung had failed to finish in the top 10 in the two sprint races - but was already on course for a podium finish in third place until brake problems in the first race - and therefore came away empty-handed, he remains twelfth in the standings.
The 20-year-old Piastri is clearly leading the championship with 213.5 points, ahead of Shwartzman (162) and next year's Alfa/Sauber GP driver Guanyu Zhou (149) from China. With a good weekend in Abu Dhabi, Ralph Boschung could still move up into the top ten.
