{"id":7585,"date":"2024-09-15T10:15:16","date_gmt":"2024-09-15T14:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/?p=7585"},"modified":"2024-09-16T10:16:56","modified_gmt":"2024-09-16T14:16:56","slug":"american-f1-hopeful-crawford-second-in-f2-race-at-baku","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/15\/american-f1-hopeful-crawford-second-in-f2-race-at-baku\/","title":{"rendered":"American F1 hopeful Crawford second in F2 Race at Baku"},"content":{"rendered":"

19-year-old Texan \u00a0extends scoring streak to 6 races<\/em>
\nBAKU, Azerbaijan (15 Sept. 2024) \u2013 Jak Crawford scored a second-place finish in Saturday\u2019s Sprint Race in the Grand Prix of Azerbaijan, visiting the podium for the fifth time in the 2024 FIA Formula 2 Championship season.<\/p>\n

The 19-year-old Texan completed the weekend with an eighth-place result in Sunday\u2019s red flag-shortened Feature Race, his 19th top-10 finish competing for DAMS Lucas Oil Racing this season. The event extended his scoring streak to six races in a row with only four\u00a0races remaining in the season.<\/p>\n

Having shown strong pace all weekend, the American Formula 1 hopeful was not fully satisfied despite the double-points event after challenging for his second victory of the season following a big move to second on a late restart with just four laps remaining.<\/p>\n

\u201cSecond was definitely a good result, but we were a bit disappointed because we couldn\u2019t quite put it together all weekend to get the car in the right window, and we just missed out on the win because of that,” he said. “I was happy with scoring a few points, but we really struggled trying to put the car in a good window for this track.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once again in qualifying, Crawford was able to deliver when it counted, as a late session red flag set the stage for a single lap qualifying push to make it into the all-important top ten. Despite not having the optimum window to get to temperature with the tires, he was able to clock a 1:55.634-seconds lap to score the ninth fastest lap in the dying moments of the session, putting him on the front row for the Sprint Race.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was feeling good in qualifying, but unfortunately we didn\u2019t have the pace in the car,\u201d he said. \u201cI put a decent enough lap in to secure myself into the top 10, which is quite important to score points in both races.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gridded second for the 21-lap Sprint on the tight street circuit, Crawford found his move covered at the start and he fell to fourth position in Turn 1 as he worked to overcome a clutch issue on the start and slotted into fourth.<\/p>\n

He made a pass to take third with six laps remaining \u2013 moments before an incident brought out the lone safety car period of the race. He took second on the restart, but was unable to close the gap to the leader in the final laps.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was trying to come on at the end,\u201d Crawford said. \u201cThat has been my strategy, and it\u2019s worked well. I was racing against two rookies who were in their first weekend in F2, and I took advantage of the situation. I took care of the tires so I would be ready for the restart, but it seemed I had more tire degradation than the others at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gridded ninth for Sunday\u2019s feature, Crawford managed to get away despite the car in front of him failing to get off the line at lights-out \u2013 which led to a massive accident moments later that brought out a 40-minute red flag.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did have to avoid the stopped car, it just slowed me down a bit,\u201d he said. \u201cBut for the guys in the back, they were going a lot faster.\u201d<\/p>\n

The long delay led to the race going from a scheduled 29-laps to time, with 27-minutes remaining at the restart. The event eventually covered only 17 laps.<\/p>\n

Crawford restarted in ninth, and pitted a few laps into the event to make the mandatory change to harder tires. He took eighth with nine minutes remaining, and was working on taking another position when an incident with three minutes on the clock forced the race to finish behind the safety car.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe struggled with the car again to find the right window, and that was it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a very short race, and we lost out on the pit stop a little bit that cost us a few positions. At the end, I was attempting to make a move. I don\u2019t know if it would have paid off, I was pushing everything to the end. \u00a0Overall, a bit of an unfortunate race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crawford now gets another two-month break before the season ends with back-to-back events at Lusail International Circuit in Qatar (Nov. 30-Dec. 1) and the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the Yas Marina Circuit in the United Arar Emirates (Dec. 7-8). The Aston Martin Aramco Young Driver Development Program driver will spend some time back in the U.S., for the Grands Prix at his home city in Austin and Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe break means I get to spend a lot of time on the Aston Martin simulator, and I have a lot to keep me busy during the break,\u201d he said. \u201cI think Lusail will suit the car, and then we will have to work quite hard for Abu Dhabi. I\u2019m looking forward to finishing the season on a high, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

19-year-old Texan \u00a0extends scoring streak to 6 races BAKU, Azerbaijan (15 Sept. 2024) \u2013 Jak Crawford scored a second-place finish in Saturday\u2019s Sprint Race in the [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7586,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7585","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\/7585","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=7585"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7587,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7585\/revisions\/7587"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}