Pourchiare romps to F2 Feature race win in Bahrain

Theo Pourchaire opened his account in the 2023 FIA Formula 2 Championship with victory in the Bahrain Feature race.

The Frenchman qualified on pole on Friday before logging bonus points for fastest lap en route to fifth in Saturday’s Sprint encounter.

It was only the bonus point that eluded him on Sunday as he banked 27 (25 for the win and two for qualifying) to overtake Ralph Boschung at the head of the F2 title race.

Saturday’s winner, Boschung climbed from eighth on the grid – the reverse pole – to second.

Completing the podium was rookie Zane Maloney who now sits third in the drivers’ standings.

Pourchaire headed the field from pole for the opening 11 laps, ceding top spot only when he pitted, at which point Boschung took over our front.

Contact a t Turn 4 on the opening lap saw Richard Verschoor, Roman Stanek, Victor Martins, and Frederik Vesti all involved, the latter three forced out of the race as a result.

It triggered the Safety Car, with Oliver Bearman climbing to fourth after starting 12th.

The field was released on Lap 4, pour heading Maini, Boschung, and Bearman.

The pit sequence started on lap 11 when Arthur Leclerc boxed, followed by Jack Doohan and Jehan Daruvala.

Once the pit sequence had shaken out, Pourchaire enjoyed a 12.6s advantage over Boschung who had Leclerc and Kush Maini for company, while Bearman was also lurking.

The Brit ultimately asked too much of his tyres and eventually fell to 14th at the flag, his times dropping two seconds a lap once Maloney found a way through .on Lap 27.

That left Maloney fourth, the Barbadian taking third just two laps from the flag.

Doohan endured a difficult weekend, largely attributable be a poor decision by the team when it came to the timing of his final run in qualifying.

The Aussie never set a representative lap as he encountered traffic, leaving him 17th for both races.

A penalty for a pit lane infringement in the Feature meant he could do no better than 16th, though did for a time run as high as 11th in the opening laps.

The second round of the Formula 2 championship heads to Jeddah in support of the Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on March 17-19.

Results: Formula 2 Feature Race, Bahrain

Pos	Num	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Diff	Fastest	Pts
1	5	Theo POURCHAIRE	ART Grand Prix	32	1:01:10.926		1:47.689	25
2	25	Ralph BOSCHUNG	Campos Racing	32	1:01:30.592	19.666	1:49.318	18
3	3	Zane MALONEY	Rodin Carlin	32	1:01:42.513	31.587	1:47.932	15
4	24	Kush MAINI	Campos Racing	32	1:01:49.715	38.789	1:48.383	12
5	22	Richard VERSCHOOR	Van Amersfoort Racing	32	1:01:54.008	43.082	1:47.321	11
6	12	Arthur LECLERC	DAMS	32	1:01:55.268	44.342	1:48.710	8
7	10	Isack HADJAR	Hitech Pulse-Eight	32	1:01:57.382	46.456	1:49.521	6
8	11	Ayumu IWASA	DAMS	32	1:02:01.741	50.815	1:48.935	4
9	4	Enzo FITTIPALDI	Rodin Carlin	32	1:02:02.322	51.396	1:48.986	2
10	23	Juan Manuel CORREA	Van Amersfoort Racing	32	1:02:02.763	51.837	1:49.249	1
11	16	Roy NISSANY	PHM Racing by Charouz	32	1:02:03.865	52.939	1:49.725
12	9	Jak CRAWFORD	Hitech Pulse-Eight	32	1:02:04.255	53.329	1:48.835
13	21	Clement NOVALAK	Trident	32	1:02:04.879	53.953	1:48.712
14	8	Oliver BEARMAN	PREMA Racing	32	1:02:10.665	59.739	1:48.383
15	15	Amaury CORDEEL	Invicta Virtuosi Racing	32	1:02:11.894	60.968	1:50.006
16	14	Jack DOOHAN *	Invicta Virtuosi Racing	32	1:02:16.130	65.204	1:48.516
17	2	Jehan DARUVALA *	MP Motorsport	32	1:02:17.389	66.463	1:49.079
18	17	Brad BENAVIDES	PHM Racing by Charouz	32	1:02:44.161	93.235	1:48.088
				NOT CLASSIFIED
	1	Dennis HAUGER	MP Motorsport	16	43:46.331	DNF	1:49.549
	6	Victor MARTINS	ART Grand Prix	1	2:16.136	DNF
	7	Frederik VESTI	PREMA Racing	1	2:35.425	DNF
	20	Roman STANEK	Trident	0		DNF

Car 14 – 5 second time penalty applied as per in-race Stewards’ decision – Pit lane procedure violation
Car 2 – 5 second time penalty applied as per in-race Stewards’ decision – Speeding in the pit lane