Crawford gets front seat view of Monaco chaos to win F2 feature race

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

DAMS’ Jak Crawford won a chaotic and frequently disrupted Formula 2 feature race in Monaco, as the points lead changed hands.

At the opening corner of the race, a crash instigated by front row starters Alex Dunne (Rodin Motorsport) and Victor Martins (ART Grand Prix) eliminated themselves as well as Richard Vershcoor (MP Motorsport), Gabriele Mini (Prema), Ritomo Miyata (ART GP), Pepe Marti (Campos Racing) and Max Esterson (Trident).

Red flags waved, and after a 42-minute stoppage the race was restarted with a key difference: Prema’s Sebastian Montoya was now on the front row.

Car issues meant he had taken the original start from the pitlane rather than fifth on the grid, and he now lined up alongside Invicta Racing’s Leonardo Fornaroli at the front.

Behind them were Arvid Lindblad (Campos), Crawford, Luke Browning (Hitech GP), Kush Maini (DAMS), Joshua Duerksen (AIX Racing) and Oliver Goethe (MP).

The safety car led the field back on track, and when green flags eventually waved Fornaroli led the field into turn one.

Everyone got cleanly through, but a rhythm was not established as on lap seven Duerksen crashed at Rascasse.

There was a virtual safety car period, then racing resumed and Invicta’s Roman Stanek was now up to eighth place. That became seventh as Goethe pitted, swapping his supersoft compound tyres for softs in an attempt at getting the fastest lap.

Hitech’s Dino Beganovic soon did the same, as Fornaroli held a half-second gap up front and Crawford actually set fastest laps in fourth.

Goethe eventually grabbed the fastest lap on lap 11, only to be beaten by Beganovic a lap later. But on lap 14 Beganovic became ineligible for the fastest lap point as he crashed out at turn four.

A second VSC period was required, and Crawford, Browning and Maini led a pack of six in to make their compulsory pitstops as the actual safety car was summoned. Goethe pitted again too, since he had little to lose down in 10th place.

A lap later the top three headed to the pitlane, and Lindblad jumped Montoya in the pits. But he had exceeded the pitlane speed limit to do so, copping a five-second penalty that put him back behind.

The trio rejoined the track between Crawford and Browning, and once Lindblad’s penalty was applied he demoted from third to fifth. Race-ending red flags waved on lap 18, and Crawford sealed a 6.6s win as the results were taken from the end of lap 16.

Amaury Cordeel (Rodin) dropped from eighth to 12th due to the timing of the red flags meaning he was classified a lap down as he pitted.

Race results (16 laps)