Théo Pourchaire wins F2 main race in Bahrain

With more than 15 seconds ahead of his runner-up, Ralph Boschung (Campos), winner of the sprint the day before, Théo Pourchaire (ART Grand Prix) won on Sunday at the end of the first main race of the season, the one that brings in the most points. A success acquired calmly by the Frenchman, who demonstrates, after taking pole on Friday with a seven-tenths lead, that he is indeed one of the favorites, even the favorite for the title this year.

Pourchaire, already winner on this circuit last year, made a perfect start from first place and was able to calmly negotiate his first corner. He had set out to quickly take the lead but the exit of the safety car, after a collision involving in particular his teammate at ART, Victor Martins, forced to retire after his podium on Saturday, slowed his momentum. It was only a postponement for the reserve driver Alfa Romeo who, once released, took a few seconds advantage. He held the lead until lap 13, when he pitted to change tyres.

Hadjar also in the top 10

Back on track in 6th place, the Frenchman took just two laps to recover his first position and then slowly but surely widened the gap on his rivals. A significant gap on the line therefore, since the Swiss Boschung is at 19.6 and Zane Maloney (Carlin), who started 18th, at 31.5.

Another Frenchman managed to finish in the points: Isack Hadjar. The Hitech driver, who started from 14th place, finished 7th just behind the Monegasque Arthur Leclerc (DAMS) after overtaking several drivers in the last laps. As for Clément Novalak (Trident), last on the grid, he moved up to 13th place.

In the Championship, with 30 points, Pourchaire is already the leader, two points ahead of Boschung, the surprise of this first meeting of the year.