MONZA, Italy (1 Sept. 2024) – Jak Crawford rebounded from an unlucky qualifying session to score a pair of points-paying finishes as the FIA Formula 2 Championship resumed at Monza following the summer break.
The 19-year-old American Formula 1 prospect made big progress in both races, finishing sixth in Saturday’s Sprint Race after starting 13th, and then racing his way forward to take ninth in Sunday’s Feature Race after being gridded 14th in the DAMS Lucas Oil entry.
“I’m pleased to score points in both races across the weekend and happy we could turn it around after a tricky Friday,” Crawford said. “The race pace was strong again on Saturday, allowing me to battle my way up to P6. On Sunday, we got unlucky pitting a lap before the Safety Car, meaning we lost a handful of places, but P9 was still a respectable result with a car that wasn’t nearly as good as Saturday.”
Friday’s 30-minute qualifying was marred by a pair of red flags that negated his early laps and left him without a representative time. The session resumed with six minutes remaining, and Crawford managed to record a best time of 1:32.780-seconds in the final minute that put him 14th after he scored the fastest time in the final sector on his last lap.
“We were just not very fast in qualifying, and the circumstances made it even more difficult to set up the car right,” he said. “We just missed on the car setup, and it was quite tricky for us.”
Gridded 13th for the 21-lap Sprint Race, Crawford gained two positions at the start before being slowed by a safety car for a Lap 1 incident. When racing resumed, he quickly began picking off positions to move into the top 10. He took eighth with two laps remaining, took another position on the next lap, and sprinted to sixth at the checkered flag – taking the position by 0.101-seconds, just ahead of a dead-heat finish for seventh.
“It was lots of fun,” Crawford said. “We made some good improvements on the car, and it was very positive. I was very fast and had a very fun race. At the end, I had a great final lap and I finished P6, a very good result, and I was happy with the race. It was an exciting race, from start to finish.”
Sunday’s 30-lap Feature Race saw Crawford avoid chaos at the start to move from 14th to seventh in the first turn.
“I had the perfect start,” he said. “Everything just opened up for me, and I was able to keep my car in a good place all the time. I felt like I was always in the right place at the right time.”
Gaining two positions after the safety car restart, he moved to fifth on lap six when mandatory pit stops began. Crawford joined the top-five in pitting for their tire change on lap seven, returning to the track in 16th. Unfortunately, another full-course caution waved on the following lap, with most of the cars in front able to stop and come out of the pits ahead of the former lead pack.
“That was very unfortunate timing,” he said. “If it stayed out one lap later, I could have been up with the leaders. But at the end of the day, that’s part of racing.”
F2 returns to action in two weeks at Baku for races on Sept. 14-15. Then, there’s another break before the season ends with back-to-back events at Lusail in Qatar and Yas Island in United Arar Emirates on the first two weekend in December.
“I’m excited for Baku,” Crawford said. “Anything can happen there, similar to Monza. You’ve got to keep your nose clean and have good straight-line speed. I’m happy to be back on a street circuit, and I’m looking forward to it.”
