{"id":6850,"date":"2024-03-11T13:18:11","date_gmt":"2024-03-11T17:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/?p=6850"},"modified":"2024-03-12T13:19:38","modified_gmt":"2024-03-12T17:19:38","slug":"crawford-enjoys-double-points-weekend-in-saudi-arabia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/11\/crawford-enjoys-double-points-weekend-in-saudi-arabia\/","title":{"rendered":"Crawford enjoys double-points weekend in Saudi Arabia"},"content":{"rendered":"

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (11 March 2024) \u2013 American Formula 1 hopeful Jak Crawford enjoyed another strong weekend in FIA Formula 2 Championship competition, finishing fifth and fourth to score points in both races at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.<\/p>\n

The 18-year-old Texan started Saturday\u2019s Feature Race on the front row, and battled for position throughout the 28-lap event, edged out of a podium finish by a mere 0.031-seconds to cap a solid event in his second F2 weekend driving for DAMS Lucas Oil.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was a very good points weekend, and it felt like we deserved even more, especially in the main race,\u201d Crawford said. \u201cWe also could have another podium in the Sprint Race. I was fast all weekend, which is good, always in the top five in all of the sessions. I feel comfortable at this track. I\u2019ve enjoyed Jeddah in previous years, and it went really well. We\u2019ve been fighting at the front in every single session this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crawford was fast throughout the event, recording the fifth-fastest time in Thursday morning practice. He put in a lap of 1:42.376-seconds in the closing minutes of qualifying, which was the third quickest time but was elevated to second post-session.<\/p>\n

With the top-10 inverted for Friday\u2019s 20-lap Sprint Race, Crawford started eighth but was briefly knocked sideways by a competitor and fell to 10th early on the opening lap. He recovered and then spent the second half of the race battling for position, making four passes in the final eight laps to gain position and charge the checkered flag, scoring a final result of fifth.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, I had a bad first lap, and I lost a few positions due to contact,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a fun race. I was really fast, and made some good overtakes. I enjoyed that race, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Starting the Feature Race on the outside of the front row, Crawford pulled away in second at the start, and held that position before pitting on Lap 7 to change from super-soft to medium-compound tires \u2013 losing several places when other competitors made their stops over the following laps.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a good pit stop; I made the stop because we probably would have been overtaken that lap, so we decided to pit,\u201d he explained. \u201cI came out, and a competitor ran me wide and that destroyed our momentum and we lost a few positions.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was running sixth following a brief safety car intervention when racing resumed with 10 laps remaining. He made two passes over the final five laps to take fourth, and briefly held third on the final circuit before being edged out from the podium by inches in a side-by-side finish.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a bit confusion on what was going on late in the Feature Race, because of a safety car and so many cars were on different strategies,\u201d Crawford said. \u201cI wasn\u2019t quite sure where I was going go end up. Then I saw there were two laps to go, and I saw I was in fourth, so I had to had to go for the move. The last corner on the last lap was my final chance, and I just lost out at the line. That was close!\u201d<\/p>\n

F2 competitors get a weekend off before the next event, at Melbourne, Australia\u2019s Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit on March 22-24.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited for Melbourne,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s where I got my first podium last year (placing second in the Sprint Race). I was fast there, have good history there, and I love the track. But it\u2019s autumn there, so it possibly could get quite wet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photos via\u00a0\u00a9 Dutch Photo Agency’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (11 March 2024) \u2013 American Formula 1 hopeful Jak Crawford enjoyed another strong weekend in FIA Formula 2 Championship competition, finishing fifth and [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6851,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-jak-crawford-racing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6850"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6852,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6850\/revisions\/6852"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}