Photo: Dutch Photo Agency
Jak Crawford was left utterly disappointed after a penalty denied him victory in Formula 2’s Silverstone feature race, in what he described as one of his best ever showings.
The DAMS driver came from seventh on the grid to finish first on-the-road, but was demoted to third place by a five-second time penalty for an “unsafe release” from his mandatory pitstop.
“Honestly, it’s one of the best races I’ve had probably ever in my career,” he told media including Formula Scout after the race. “It was really good pace. Everything was going perfectly, except for the pitstop, I guess. It’s weird because I didn’t even celebrate or anything. And that was an amazing race, but I feel so, so down at the moment.”
The American had claimed the net lead on lap 19 of 29, taking advantage of the battle between ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins and Campos Racing’s eventual winner Isack Hadjar. Moments later, the stewards issued the penalty and his team immediately informed him.
“When I saw them side-by-side through the chicane and then the last corner and then Isack came back out at turn one, I knew I had both of them. Because I knew there was no way Victor was making the corner and Isack I just needed to get the DRS to set him up on the straight. So I was licking my lips. I was ready.
“It was perfect timing actually,” he said of learning about the penalty. “It was right when I passed. They told me I had a five-second penalty and I was flatout until the end of the race. I almost crashed so many times. It had to be done.”
Crawford’s efforts to offset the penalty left him just 0.165 seconds short of second place, which went to Zane Maloney. He had been the driver coming down the pitlane when Crawford was released from his box.
The Rodin Motorsport driver sympathised with his rival, but was pleased to finish twice on the podium at Silverstone after a tough run of races.
“You just look at the guy with the lollipop in the team,” Maloney said. “So my lollipop went up, I went. I wasn’t expecting DAMS to send Jak because it would have been tight for sure. And obviously we saw it. It was very tight. And I [went on] the brakes.
“Of course, nothing that Jak can do. You just go if the team says. Maybe a misunderstanding with one of the mechanics. And he got a five-second penalty, so it all evens out at the end of the day.
“I had been told with three laps to go or four laps to go what the gap was. So then I started pushing flatout. And I was just looking at the screens after every few corners, seeing the gap, I saw it was four seconds. I knew I had a bit of margin, but I ended up one tenth at the end.”