{"id":8236,"date":"2025-06-02T12:14:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T16:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/?p=8236"},"modified":"2025-06-03T12:15:53","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T16:15:53","slug":"crawford-cements-his-championship-run-at-barcelona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/02\/crawford-cements-his-championship-run-at-barcelona\/","title":{"rendered":"Crawford Cements his Championship Run at Barcelona"},"content":{"rendered":"

Late safety cars negate Sprint dominance, late-race opportunity in Feature<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

BARCELONA (2 June 2025) \u2013 American Formula 1 hopeful Jak Crawford put together back-to-back fourth-place finishes in Round 6 of the FIA Formula 2 Championship, in a weekend that saw late caution periods negate opportunities for even better finishes.<\/p>\n

The 20-year-old Texan dominated Saturday\u2019s Sprint Race, leading 19 of the 26 laps before a late caution allowed drivers back in the pack to pit for fresh soft tires.<\/p>\n

Sunday, the DAMS Lucas Oil team opted for an alternate strategy, with Crawford leading the competitors starting on the harder tires. He led seven laps before pitting for soft tires with 14 laps remaining and worked his way from 14th\u00a0to fourth. He was in striking distance of the second- and third-place cars when a full-course caution froze the field for the final three laps.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was still very good points, but we could have come away with a first and a second,\u201d Crawford said.<\/p>\n

Earning points for the seventh-consecutive race, Crawford moved to a tie for fourth in the championship, just 14 points in arrears.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last few races have been really good,\u201d said Crawford, coming off a Feature Race triumph at Monaco. \u201cI climbed up the standings and I\u2019m close to the top.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crawford was 12th\u00a0in Friday morning practice, and he qualified seventh after running fourth in the opening half of the 30-minute session. He got up to third in the final two minutes, only to slip back to seventh as other competitors bettered his time on their final lap.<\/p>\n

\u201cPractice was OK, we just missed the window, but practice isn\u2019t very important here,\u201d he said. \u201cIn qualifying, we had a good first run and I thought we could be in contention for the front row, but we just missed it on the second run. I barely improved on my lap time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Starting fourth for Saturday\u2019s Sprint Race, he needed only five laps to put the No. 11 DAMS Lucas Oil entry into the lead. He raced past two competitors to take second in Turn 1, and then used a bold move to the outside on the fourth lap to take the lead.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy strategy was to play the long game,\u201d Crawford admitted. \u201cI had a great start off the line, getting into second. I then saw an opportunity to take the lead, so I took it. I hadn\u2019t planned to be out front so early in the race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crawford then managed his lead, twice setting fastest race lap, and was running without a serious challenge before an incident on lap 18 set up a brief safety car intervention. Several drivers back in the pack took advantage of the yellow to pit for soft-compound tires, and they took advantage of the faster rubber to move through the field during a six-lap dash to the checkered flag. For the second time this season (a driver used a similar strategy to beat him on the final lap at Jeddah), Crawford was a sitting duck. He was passed by three cars during the final three laps as his worn, harder tires were no match for the fresh soft tires.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was controlling the race, and I think was definitely going to take the win,\u201d he said. \u201cI had a lot of pace on hand. Then the safety car came out. It was a tough decision to take from the lead, because you never know what\u2019s going to happen with the softer tires. But fourth was much better than most people expected, and unfortunately, I lost out at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sunday saw Crawford start on an alternate tire strategy, saving his softer compound for late in the race. The strategy cycled him into the lead and he once again was out front, pacing seven circuits before pitting with 14 laps remaining. He rejoined the race in 14th\u00a0position, and charged through the field to challenge the second- and third-place cars before a safety car froze the field for the final three circuits.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had an opportunity to go on an alternate strategy, so we took it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a great first stint, but it was hard to tell how we were going to come out. But I came out and had an opportunity to get myself into the mix. Then I saw an opportunity to finish second, and it was unfortunate to have the safety car just as I was going into that battle.\u201d<\/p>\n

After three consecutive weekends of competition, Crawford now gets a three-week F2 break before the next events, June 28-29 at Austria\u2019s Red Bull and then July 5-6 at Silverstone, England. Before those races, he will do some testing with the Aston Martin Formula 1 team in Monza.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love both of the tracks coming up,\u201d said Crawford, who scored his first F2 victory at Red Bull Ring in 2023 and placed third in last year\u2019s Feature Race at Silverstone. \u201cI\u2019ve won at Austria before and have had great results, and it\u2019s a track I really like. It really suits me quite a bit, and I\u2019m looking forward to it. I live 20 minutes from Silverstone, so it\u2019s like my \u2018second home\u2019 race.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Late safety cars negate Sprint dominance, late-race opportunity in Feature   BARCELONA (2 June 2025) \u2013 American Formula 1 hopeful Jak Crawford put together back-to-back fourth-place [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8237,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8236","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\/8236","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=8236"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8238,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8236\/revisions\/8238"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}