Jak Crawford took a dominant victory in the Formula 2 sprint race at Imola on Saturday. After passing polesitter Ritomo Miyata off the line, the DAMS driver was never threatened in the 25-lap race, with Campos’ Arvid Lindblad and Hitech’s Luke Browning completing the podium. 

By Martin Lloyd

Crawford’s eventual winning margin of 1.101 seconds belies his impressive performance. Starting from second on the grid, he immediately passed  Miyata at the start and quickly streaked clear of the ART Grand Prix driver, who was then passed by a succession of rivals.

The gap between Crawford and second-placed Lindblad stretched to more than 2.5 seconds by lap 14, and despite the Briton’s best efforts, he was unable to reel in the American. 

“I knew [the start] was the crucial part in the race,” Crawford said in the post-race press conference. “If I could get a good start, it would be a lot easier of a race to manage and it turned out perfectly.”

Because his rivals were busy trying to pass Miyata at Tamburello, the circuit’s sole defined overtaking spot, Crawford was never under serious threat. By the time of Lindblad’s successful second overtaking attempt on lap 12, the Aston Martin junior was two seconds in front. Browning made the move on lap 14 after failing to pass the Japanese driver on lap 13, while Martins passed his ART Grand Prix teammate at the first time of asking on lap 15.

The limited overtaking meant that the race took on a processional feel until the closing stages, when Lindblad drew closer to Crawford. The gap reduced to 1.5 seconds heading into the final three laps, but the Red Bull junior couldn’t overhaul Crawford, who took his third career F2 victory after losing the lead on the last lap of the Jeddah feature race last time out.

Crawford, who starts ninth on the grid for Sunday’s feature race, said he was frustrated by the truncation of qualifying after teammate Kush Maini crashed and brought out the red flags. But having enjoyed a strong run at Imola from the back row of the grid last season, Crawford enters the race with optimism.

“I’m pretty confident that we can have a good result tomorrow,” he told Feeder Series. “We started dead last here last year and managed to finish seventh in the feature race with a normal strategy. I have no idea how the race is going to pan out tomorrow, but I have full confidence that we can score a podium for sure or even a top five. 

“Points are definitely on the cards tomorrow, and we’re going to do our best to make sure that we fix anything that went slightly wrong today to be good for tomorrow.”

Behind Lindblad was Browning, who dropped back in the closing stages and finished 6.493s behind his fellow Briton. Martins was 1.106s back in fourth ahead of Alex Dunne, who was just 0.236s further behind as he crossed the line.

Having spent the first two-thirds of the race defending his position, Miyata stabilised to finish sixth ahead of the Invicta pair of Leonardo Fornaroli and Roman Staněk. Championship leader Richard Verschoor, who started 19th, was already out of the points when he retired in the pit lane on lap 23, but he retains an 11-point advantage over rookie Fornaroli in second. 

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency