Crawford Takes F2 double-podium at Hungaroring

BUDAPEST, Hungary (3 August 2025) – American Formula 1 hopeful Jak Crawford scored his first career double-podium weekend in FIA Formula 2 Championship competition, placing third in both weekend races at the Hungaroring.

The 20-year-old Texan now has seven podium finishes this season, including three victories. The DAMS Lucas Oil driver enters the summer break ranked second in the standings, just 17 points behind the leader.

With good pace throughout the weekend, Crawford briefly set the fast race lap in the Sprint Race as well as doing so on both sets of tires in the Feature Race.

Eleventh in practice, Crawford laid down a solid lap of 1:28.952-seconds late in Friday’s qualifying on the 2.722-mile circuit to place third, 0.173-seconds off the pole.

“Qualifying was great,” said Crawford, who has 18 total career F2 podiums thus far. “A big improvement, where we struggled in practice and struggled on our first run [in qualifying]. We then put everything together, and I felt like I did a really, really good lap. It was a great result, and it almost felt like a pole position as it came together after we struggled previously.”

With the top-10 inverted for Saturday’s 28-lap Sprint Race, Crawford made a strong move to the inside to gain three positions in the opening turns of the first lap.

“The Sprint Race was another good race,” said Crawford. “We had a great start, which helped a lot, and then we played the long game, waiting until the end until I had a chance to protect. It’s very tricky to pass on this track, and I knew everyone was going to be saving.”

Crawford took fourth with eight laps remaining and was applying pressure for third when a safety car period slowed the action. That set up a three-lap sprint to the finish. On the final lap, he made a move to the inside to secure third position.

“When I had the chance, I was able to make my move and get into third on the last lap, which was nice.”

Sunday’s 37-lap Feature Race began behind the safety car on a damp but drying track. Crawford fought off early challenges to hold third and then set his sights on the top two. Starting on soft tires, he pitted on the 16th of 37 laps. After a slight delay on the stop, he returned to the field 11th, keeping static position with the cars that were following the strategy as he resumed the chase.

“We were coming on, and I felt we were very fast,” he explained. “We struggled a bit more when it was really wet, but we were quite fast at the end of the first stint, and also at the start of the second stint.”

With the laps winding down, and the virtual race leader carrying a five-second penalty for a pit infringement, Crawford made several attempts to pass the second-place competitor. He briefly got by with 10 laps remaining, but the challenges used up his tires.

“I was trying very hard, but it’s super-tricky to pass on this track and as well it was quite wet off the line, so it was a big challenge to make the move, he explained. “I tried my best to get past [Roman] Stanek, but unfortunately it was a bit too dirty off the line. The one time I was close enough to make a move, I had a lock-up going off the line and unfortunately, I was unable to make it work.

“I felt I had better pace than the two guys who finished ahead of me. But it’s just the nature of the circuit, where even normally, it’s quite tricky to pass so it didn’t turn out well.”

Following an intense run of weeks that have included F2 races, Formula E activity with Andretti Global as well as his Aramco Aston Martin Racing duties, Crawford is looking forward to a brief summer break although he’s already eager to get back to race action.

“I’m excited to get some time off, but at the same time, I’m also excited for the next race,” he said. “I’ll be coming back to America next week, and I’ll be home in Texas with my family on vacation.”

Only four weekends remain in the F2 campaign, which resumes Sept. 6-7 at Monza.

“Monza’s a fun race – one of my favorites of the year,” he said. “The races are normally quite chaotic, so we will have deal with that. Otherwise, I love the track and I’ll do my best to prepare well for it.”