Strong all weekend, Crawford achieves Spa F2 podium on final lap of Feature

American scored double-points weekend with fifth in wet Sprint Race

STAVELOT, Belgium (28 July 2024) – American Formula 1 prospect Jak Crawford took third position on the final lap in Sunday’s Feature Race at Spa-Francorchamps, giving him three podiums in the five most recent Feature Races in FIA Formula 2 Championship competition.

It was the fourth podium of the season and ninth in the career of the 19-year-old Texan, who also finished fifth in the rain-plagued Sprint Race on Saturday to claim his fourth top-five finish of the season in the Saturday races for the DAMS Lucas Oil Racing driver.

Crawford set the tone of the weekend by qualifying fourth, his third-best effort of the season and best since taking second at Barcelona.

“Qualifying is important, we learned that coming off the back end of a really poor qualifying,” said Crawford, who was ninth in the lone practice session. “We knew where we needed to improve, and we did a really good job as a team to be up there. We didn’t quite have the pace for pole, but it was a great result, for sure.”

The Sprint Race began in a downpour on Saturday. With the top-10 qualifiers inverted, Crawford was gridded seventh. He gained two positions on the opening three laps before a safety car intervention for an incident. With rain intensifying, the safety car stayed out for extra laps before the event was red flagged. Precipitation later in the afternoon prevented the race from being restarted, meaning that Crawford was classified fifth, the final driver to earn points.

“Not getting to race more was unfortunate, because we were really quick in the wet,” Crawford explained. “We had a good start, and we seemed to be catching the top guys quite quickly. It’s too bad about the weather, because we had good speed, but safety is more important, of course.”

Sunday morning’s feature saw DAMS Lucas Oil begin the race on the soft-compound tires. The 25-lap race saw much better conditions – with a few damp spots early in the event. Crawford got out in fourth and held that position through two early safety car periods.

He pitted on lap 10 to change to the medium compound, returning to the race in 11th. Crawford recycled to fourth by lap 18 as competitors made their mandatory stops. Continually challenging for a podium position, Crawford moved to third on the final lap to add to his F2 trophy tally with a strong return to points paying position.

“Today was a good race, being on the podium and getting great points,” he said. “I had a good battle in the end there but it was tricky with the tires at the end so I wasn’t able to fight for second at the end.

“I think everyone was surprised at how the tires were reacting,” he said of the medium-compound tire. “The lap times were low at the beginning of the stints, and everyone was surprised at how quickly the tires fell off.”

Crawford now gets to enjoy four weekends off before F2 action resumes on August 31-Sept. 1 at Monza, with only four rounds remaining on the schedule.

“I’m going to take some time off, and go back to the U.S. for a bit,” said Crawford, a member of the Aston Martin Aramco Young Driver Development Program. “I’m looking forward to spending some time with my family, and then I’ll go to Colorado for a little bit. But first, I’ll have some work with Aston Martin, and then I’ll have more work with Aston Martin the week before Monza.

“Monza is always chaotic. It’s a very fast race. Qualifying will be important, to keep out of the chaos in the middle. I performed well there last year, and I’m looking to this year and hopefully get some good points again.”