Photo: Dutch Photo Agency
Jak Crawford “left nothing on the table” in his attempt to beat race-winner Richard Verschoor in a high-paced Jeddah Formula 2 feature race.
DAMS driver Crawford started from pole and led the first part of the race on supersoft tyres. He briefly fell behind Victor Martins after both had pitted, but resumed the lead once all those on the alternate strategy had made their stops – only to succumb to Verschoor on his faster and fresher rubber on the final lap.
“It was always going to be a close race, especially at this track where there is no deg[radation],” Crawford said. “The prime-option [medium-supersoft] strategy is almost the preferred one if there is no safety car. So we always knew it was going to be close. It’s a shame we ended up behind Victor after the virtual safety car because we fell a little bit and that’s where I felt like we lost the win.
“I drove basically 20 qualifying laps in a row and left nothing on the table. So from my side, I am happy. Just wishing we would have a little bit more to keep Richard behind one more lap.”
Verschoor had started ninth but Crawford became aware of the threat from the MP Motorsport driver’s pace “quite early”.
“I had passed Victor, tried to build a gap with DRS and then I said ‘I’m going to save my tyres’. I didn’t know the pace so I dropped into a 1m47.9s or 1m48.0s and then they told me Richard was doing 1m47.2s. So at that moment I was flat out, I didn’t lift off a single bit.
“It was a really tough race pushing that hard. I didn’t know how I was going to go and honestly when Richard came out of the pits, obviously with cold tyres he dropped back. So I was thinking I had a chance again. I was going quicker and quicker and quicker, but unfortunately the gap just wasn’t big enough.”
Crawford defended going with the “safer” option-prime strategy given the high risk of a safety car and the fact he had yet to score points in a race so far this season, and says the result gives him “great confidence” going forward.
“Bahrain was an outlier for us, where we struggled and didn’t get to manage any points even though I think we could have. Australia we were really fast, but didn’t get to show anything. So I am glad we got to show our pace here, qualifying on pole, finishing second in the feature race with great pace. Feeling very good for the rest of the season, very confident.”