Jak Crawford won the F2 feature race in Barcelona, finishing ahead of Franco Colapinto and teammate Juan Manuel Correa. After the race, Feeder Series caught up with the two DAMS drivers alongside other selected media at a press conference.

By Martin Lloyd

Crawford started in second place, and remained behind polesitter Paul Aron after the Hitech driver’s good start. However, when Crawford pitted before Aron, the American driver was able to undercut with the advantageous warm hard tyres. Aron pitted three laps later than his rival, and yet emerged from the pits ahead on Lap 12. Unfortunately for the Estonian, Crawford used his warm tyres to overtake, moving into a net race lead that he would never relinquish. Afterwards, the American discussed his strategy choice.

“I think from my side, it was pretty much decided what the strategy was going to be after qualifying,” he said. “I think its quite standard in F2 for everyone at the front to start on the option tyre.”

Behind Crawford, an intriguing battle ensued for the podium places. In his attempts to chase down the leader, Aron careered off at the final corner of Lap 16, ending his chances of taking his first F2 victory. Colapinto looked to be safe in second, but those behind were threatened by Crawford’s DAMS teammate, Juan Manuel Correa.

The hard-charging Correa had become the top runner on the alternate strategy, originally assuming second place once the soft-starting runners had pitted. Another driver who started on hard tyres, Joshua Dürksen, had raced clear of Correa, but retired on Lap 18, presenting the latter with the lead. Later, the 24-year-old would race through the pack after his stop, crediting the team for a ‘risky’ strategy choice.

“It’s a bit risky, but it worked,” he said. “I think as a team it’s a good idea to split the cars and secure at least one good position for the team. For Jak it was a no brainer, for me we maybe risked a bit but it paid off.”

The feared safety car never appeared, with the retirements of Dürksen and his AIX Racing teammate Taylor Barnard only requiring virtual safety cars. Correa then used his clean air effectively, exiting the pits in eighth place and being able to chase down the pack ahead. Using fresh soft tyres, he quickly dispatched of Zane Maloney, Isack Hadjar and Gabriel Bortoleto, before sweeping around the outside of Aron at Turn 1 to move into the podium positions. Both Colapinto and Crawford worried that Correa could threaten them, but the challenge never materialised.

It was a podium symbolic of the American-Ecuadorian’s incredible recovery from the crash that claimed Anthoine Hubert’s life at Spa in 2019; today’s result was exactly five years since Correa’s last F2 podium. On that occasion, he stood alongside Hubert at Paul Ricard.

“That was a good day five years ago,” Correa told the press conference. “Its just kind of surreal for me to be here, and I’m just grateful to still have these opportunities, to still be competing here at this level and to be back on the podium. It feels great, I think of him all the time doing this sport, and I hope that he’s smiling up there. It’s a good coincidence that it fell on this day and that I had a good result.”

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency