Fast at the starts, Crawford wins F2 Sprint

Races forward to sixth in feature 

IMOLA (19 May 2025) – American F1 prospect Jak Crawford followed up a victory in Saturday’s Sprint Race with a points-paying sixth-place finish in Sunday’s FIA Formula 2 Championship Feature Race at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari.

The 20-year-old Texan had fantastic starts in both of the weekend’s races in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at the historic circuit.

Starting on the outside of the front row in Saturday’s Sprint Race, the DAMS Lucas Oil driver took the lead entering Turn 1 and held it for the entire 25-lap event, winning by 1.101-seconds.

The Texan had another great start in Sunday’s 35-lap Feature Race, moving to fifth on the opening lap after starting ninth. Running 11th with eight laps remaining, he took sixth in the closing three laps.

“Overall, I was pretty happy with the weekend,” Crawford said. “Obviously the victory was great, but I think I deserved a bit better today. But 18 points on the weekend is a good haul.”

Crawford opened the weekend by placing 10th in Friday practice. He was eighth with 10 minutes remaining, and had two faster segments when a red flag froze the session with 5:59 seconds on the clock, negating his lap. The session was not resumed due to time constraints. That placed Crawford ninth.

“We struggled a bit in free practice, but we were back on it during the first run in qualifying,” he said. “We looked even better to improve on the second run, but unfortunately, they ended the session early so I couldn’t complete my final run – which I thought would have put me farther forward for the Feature Race.”

Crawford got the jump at lights-out on Saturday. He increased his margin to more than one second on Lap 2 – putting him out of DRS (drag reduction system) range. From there on, it was a matter of managing that gap. Cars running within one second of a competitor have the DRS flap on the rear wing opened in specified zones – allowing them to be able to possibly slingshot the leading car.

“Amazing start,” Crawford said. “From there on, I felt I won the race. I just needed to manage my tires and manage the gap. That’s exactly what I did, and I was able to keep the lead for the whole race and control the gap all the way to the finish.”

Sunday’s Feature saw Crawford cross the line fifth on the first lap after starting the race from ninth on the grid.

“It was a great start, with a lot of chaos happening,” he explained. “I had a perfect run up into Turn 1. I was able to gain positions and it was looking quite good.”

Starting on the super-soft compound, Crawford took the lead after the top four pitted after running the mandated six laps on the alternate tire. Crawford pitted on the next lap, but lost key ground on a slow pit stop.

“Unfortunately, we lost some time changing one of the tires,” he said. “That might of cost me the win or at least a podium today. I thought I was going to come out ahead of the guys [who stopped on the previous lap], because we had played it perfectly to come out at the right time, but the mistake was out of my control.”

That put Crawford 16th on the track. For the remainder of the race, he managed to make passes while various strategies saw the leaders to make their mandatory stops. A safety car period on Lap 16 took away any advantage for the cars utilizing the alternate strategy.

“It was quite chaotic with the safety car,” Crawford said. “I just had to keep my nose clean and make sure I finished the race. It was really difficult to pass, so I just had to take the points home.”

Crawford managed to gain one position in the standings ahead of a busy sweep of events.

The F2 competitors have a short break before this weekend in Monaco. That event has split qualifying on Friday, with Crawford waiting for a draw on Wednesday to see which group he will join for his 12-minute session.

“I’m super-excited for Monaco, one of the most fun races of the year,” he said. “It’s a glamorous race [for Formula 1], but it’s a lot different for us in Formula 2. It’s early mornings and the paddock is far away, so it’s all about the race. The different qualifying uses only one set of super-soft tires to be used in qualifying. It’s a short session to complete all of your laps.”

The following week, Crawford defends his Feature Race victory at Barcelona on May 31-June 1, prior to another F1 test for Aston Martin.

“I did really well at Barcelona last year and I love the track. Hopefully, I can back up that result and get more points. I had a good F1 test at Zandvoort last Monday, and I have another F1 test at Monza in the first week of June.”