{"id":8032,"date":"2025-04-20T12:33:12","date_gmt":"2025-04-20T16:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/?p=8032"},"modified":"2025-04-21T12:34:46","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T16:34:46","slug":"crawford-takes-saudi-arabia-feature-pole-and-podium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/20\/crawford-takes-saudi-arabia-feature-pole-and-podium\/","title":{"rendered":"Crawford takes Saudi Arabia Feature Pole and Podium"},"content":{"rendered":"

Texan in the F2 points with second place finish after VSC and alternate strategy keep him from top step<\/em><\/p>\n

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (20 April 2025) \u2013 American Formula 1 hopeful Jak Crawford scored his first points of the FIA Formula 2 Championship season, taking second in the Feature Race at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit on Sunday.<\/p>\n

After scoring the second pole position of his F2 career, the DAMS Lucas Oil driver pulled away at the start and led the first seven laps before his mandatory pit stop. The American looked on track to score another F2 victory, but came home second after a competitor utilized an alternate strategy with a fresher set of super-softs in the closing laps to claim the win.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a pretty good weekend overall,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was good just to get some points on the board, and we had pretty good speed, so we\u2019re happy with the job we\u2019ve done.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut finishing second was tough, to be honest,\u201d Crawford said. \u201cIt was always going to be a close race, especially at this track where there is no tire deg[redation]. It was a really tough race pushing that hard. I was going quicker and quicker, but unfortunately, the gap wasn\u2019t big enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crawford was quick in practice on the world\u2019s fastest street circuit, holding the second quickest lap for most of the opening 30-minute practice session.<\/p>\n

Qualifying saw him 14th\u00a0on his opening set of super-soft tires. A red flag spoiled his potential fast lap in the closing minutes \u2013 meaning he would only have one final lap on his new tires Running 18th entering his final lap moments before the checkered flag, he delivered at the key moment as he took pole with a lap of 1:43.579-seconds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that was the greatest lap I\u2019ve ever done in my life,\u201d he told his team after scoring his first pole since Zandvoort in 2023. \u201cAfter struggling on the first run, we got it fixed for the second run. Then we had a red flag on my first push laps, so I just did my best to try to bring home a top 10. Then everything came together with the changes we made between the two runs. My last lap was pretty good, and when I crossed the finish line, I couldn\u2019t believe my eyes with the time I saw. It came together quite perfectly at the end. I was pretty happy with that, my first pole with DAMS, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the inverse grid for Saturday\u2019s 20-lap Sprint Race, Crawford started 10th\u00a0and raced his way forward, moving up to fight for sixth with five laps to go. But as he went for sixth, Crawford was forced onto the dirty line on entry as contact sent him spinning out of the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a pretty good race, and we were really fast,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was unfortunate to lose some potential points, but it was a good race up until then.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crawford got off quick from lights-out in Sunday\u2019s Feature Race, taking the lead and pulling away from DRS. Following his pit stop, he quickly regained the advantage from his rivals who also started the race on super-soft tires.\u00a0 But a late pit stop from one racer meant that Crawford was fighting against much fresher tires as he came home second at the checkers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI pushed my heart out non-stop,\u201d Crawford told his team following the race. \u201cIt was a nail-biter. I lost a bit of time after the pit stop, and that didn\u2019t help, so I knew it was going to be close at the end. I drove basically 20 quali laps in a row and left nothing on the table, so on my side, I am happy. Of course, I\u2019m just wishing we would have a little bit more to keep the lead one more lap. There was not much I could have done better.\u201d<\/p>\n

The finish saw Crawford move to eighth in the standings as he looks to build on the points with the next series of outings.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re happy to get on the board with some points,\u201d he said. \u201cStill a long season, with three good tracks coming up for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next up is the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola on May 17-18. Last year, Crawford battled from a last-row start to finish seventh in the Feature Race.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited for Imola,\u201d he said. \u201cLast year I didn\u2019t get to show what I had in qualifying due to an engine issue, and came from last to seventh. Hopefully, I\u2019ll qualify at the front and again fight for a win on Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crawford will be busy between races, with a Formula E event as reserve driver for Andretti in Monaco and an F1 test at Zandvoort, in addition to many days on the simulator.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Texan in the F2 points with second place finish after VSC and alternate strategy keep him from top step JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (20 April 2025) \u2013 [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8033,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8032","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\/8032","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=8032"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8034,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8032\/revisions\/8034"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}