Crawford wins Barcelona F2 feature race, Correa back on the podium

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Jak Crawford took a first Formula 2 feature race win in Barcelona as his DAMS team-mate Juan Manuel Correa joined him on the podium on the alternate strategy.

Paul Aron made a good getaway from pole position to keep the lead as Crawford fended off Franco Colapinto for second, but the race was soon neutralised by a safety car after Victor Martins and Dennis Hauger tangled at turn two and spun into the gravel trap.

Aron created a gap at the restart but Crawford, driving for a DAMS team that showed great pace on the hard tyre in Saturday’s sprint race, was one of the first to pit at the end of lap eight.

It was three laps later before Aron pitted, in which time Crawford had got his hard tyres up to temperature and was able to drive around the outside of the Hitech GP driver at turn three to claim the net lead.

After a brief virtual safety car period to clear the car of AIX Racing’s Taylor Barnard from the inside of the final turn, Aron was chasing Crawford once more but fighting with oversteer. He lost the rear in the last corner and slide wide through the gravel, causing him to drop behind Gabriel Bortoleto, Colapinto and Zak O’Sullivan.

Another, longer, VSC period followed after Barnard’s team-mate Joshua Duerksen slowed to a halt while leading on the alternate strategy, 6.6s in front of second-placed Correa and 28.4s ahead of Crawford.

After the restart, Colapinto repassed Bortoleto for what would become second and tried to keep the pressure on Crawford, while Aron worked his way back up into third, but both would have to turn their attention behind them and to Correa’s rapid pace on fresh soft tyres after pitting with 10 laps remaining.

Having passed Isack Hadjar and Bortoleto within a matter of corners, Correa quickly closed the gap to Aron and passed him for third with five laps to go.

The top two would have enough pace in hand however, Crawford taking the win by 1.4s ahead of Colapinto, with Correa finishing 4.4s further back – and returning to the podium once more after losing his third place from Saturday (his first F2 podium visit for five years) to a post-race track limits penalty.

Aron finished fourth to increase his championship lead over Hadjar, who had stormed from 11th to fifth at the start.

Kush Maini pitted at the same time as Correa and also put on a late charge, finishing sixth even after last-lap contact with Virtuosi Racing team-mate Bortoleto as he made a move around the outside of the first corner.

The top 10 was completed by Zane Maloney and two more late stoppers, Amaury Cordeel and Pepe Marti.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli also had strong pace late on after being the last driver to pit in what had been a tough race for Prema. Antonelli failed to get away at the start of the formation lap, forcing him to start from the pits rather than fifth on the grid, and was passed on track by Crawford and Colapinto even before he made his stop. After setting the fastest lap, he finished 12th. Team-mate Ollie Bearman, who won this race in 2023, gained six places up to ninth at the start but lacked pace thereafter and finished 14th.

Race results (37 laps)