Crawford wins as F2 points leader Verschoor retires in Imola sprint race

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

DAMS Jak Crawford won Formula 2 sprint race at Imola, as MP Motorsport’s points leader Richard Verschoor retired.

Crawford snatched the lead off the line from ART Grand Prix’s reversed-grid poleman Ritomo Miyata, and stayed at the front for the duration of the 25-lap race.

In the opening laps, Miyata was able to stay with Crawford as the fast starting Arvid Lindblad battled to stay ahead of Luke Browning. Gradually, Miyata slipped away from the leader and Campos Racing driver Lindblad quickly closed the gap.

Miyata put up a strong defence, allowing Crawford to escape. By the time Lindblad made a move stick on lap 12, Crawford was more than two seconds ahead. 

Lindblad spent the remainder of the race trying to close the gap and rapidly closed in during the closing stages. Crawford did not put a wheel wrong though, and still had 1.1 seconds in hand when the chequered flag waved.

Behind them, Miyata continued to slip backwards. Hitech GP’s Browning found a way past on lap 14, with fellow Williams junior Victor Martins following him past next time by.

Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Dunne was the final driver to pass Miyata. He kept the pressure on ART GP’s Martins in the final laps, but could not find a way through.

There was drama late in the race as Rodin’s Amaury Cordeel ran sideways and spun back onto the track at Tamborello. The incident brought local yellow flags, which disabled the use of DRS too, before he going again without assistance. 

The only other incidents happened early on. Campos’s Pepe Marti and Prema’s Gabriele Mini were battling for position when Mini clipped Marti’s front wing. Both were forced wide and plummeted down the order, with the incident put under investigation. Marti recovered to 14th, two places ahead of Mini and marking their first non-scores of the season.

Verschoor meanwhile had problems that required him to head to the pits late on to retire. He now has a 11-point lead over Leonardo Fornaroli, who spent the second half of the race battling with his Invicta Racing team-mate Roman Stanek.

From 12th on the grid, Stanek had a good drive from 12th. He passed Hitech’s Dino Beganovic after he made a mistake while battling Joshua Durksen, then cleared the AIX Racing driver for eighth place and began to put pressure on his team-mate. The pair came up against Miyata in the final laps, but he was able to hold them both off for sixth.

Prema’s Sebastian Montoya took ninth from MP’s Oliver Goethe, who recovered from a poor start to score a point.

Race results (25 laps)