Jak Crawford surprised even himself in Saturday’s Sprint Race in Hungary, after securing a P3 finish, after starting from P6. Heading into the race, a podium was not something that seemed reachable. Despite this, a superb overtake on Victor Martins, and a feisty hunt of Lindblad made it reality.
Crawford has made comments previously about how he would ideally like to be leading the Championship into the Summer break. He stated that it would be nicer to be chased down once the season resumed. Speaking to media outlets including Pit Debrief, he expanded on this. He also touched on the weekend gone, and the weekend still to come.
An unexpected podium finish
Key to his success today was his brilliant jump off of the start, to instantly take P5. This proved crucial when in came to the two drivers ahead, Martins and Lindblad, fighting over P3. This created an opportunity for the American to catch the Frenchman off guard, to take P4.
Crawford sat in waiting until the perfect opportunity appeared to finally make his move on Lindblad, and secure P3. Overall, Crawford describes it as a “very good race”, and is quite happy with his pace.
“I definitely waking up didn’t think there was a podium on the cards just because of the nature of the race. There probably wasn’t going to be a lot of deg, everyone was going to be saving. Of course, it’s very tricky to pass on this track but I made a great start. I got up to fifth after lap one which is kind of what started it and then I knew it was going to be the last five laps trying to find any opportunity I could.
“Obviously, I saw the opportunity with the fight in between Arvid and Victor to pass Victor and then I had to save up everything until the last lap to pass Arvid with the DRS. It was a very good race. Very happy with the pace as well. So yeah, we’re ready for the world.”
A tough battle with Lindblad
A large portion of Crawford’s Sprint Race, surrounded his long lasting fight against Arvid Lindblad. From early on in the race, right until the last lap, Crawford remained ever so close to making the overtake. On the final lap of racing, the American finally made it by.
At no point in the race did Lindblad make it easy for Crawford. Crawford described the Briton’s defence to be like he was swerving everywhere—he overall defended extremely hard. This made it clear to Crawford that his move would have to wait until the end of the race. He presumed by this point, Lindblad’s tyres would be gone. Due to the late Safety Car, Crawford’s closest attempt all race fell through. Without DRS, the extra help was simply not there. Nonetheless, it all ended up working out in Crawford’s favour.
“Yeah, I’m not going to lie. It was a bit rough at times. I felt like he was just swerving everywhere I went but yeah, it’s how it is I guess. Once I saw he was defending really hard, I knew I was going to have to wait until the end when he was really pushing to the limit of his tyres and I was catching him like three, four times, in the last corner every time so I knew if I was just kind of close, I could get a good exit off the last corner and always be attacking. Unfortunately, in the best run I had, there was no DRS activated so I had to wait until the last.”
A boost in confidence for the Feature Race
The Feature Race will be different due to the hightened strategy, though the Sprint gave Crawford a boost in confidence. A mandatory pit stop adds to the strategic nature in the Feature Race. The results from the Sprint Race have shown that the car is looking promising. Potentially, even more suited to conditions in the Feature Race. Starting from P3, Crawford will be pushing for the win.
“Yeah, for sure. We had great pace. Of course, it’s going to be a very different race tomorrow with strategy involved. But yeah, it was looking really promising. I think even the car can be more suitable to conditions tomorrow so yeah, very looking forward to tomorrow where we can hopefully fight for the win.”
The decision to push or save the tyres
From the start of the session, it was clear to Crawford that if he was going to gain positions, it would be at the end of the race. With this in mind, he kept himself and his race reasonably calm. The cars behind him also refrained from pushing, making this easier for him to do also. At the start of the race he attempted a single fastest lap in order to test the pace he had, before going straight back to maintaining his tyres.
With roughly ten laps to go, the race began to take off. Crawford believed he had great pace but of course, once you start to reach the thermal limit of the tyres, you lose grip. This is exactly what happened to Crawford—although thankfully still able to manage his race, and overtake in the final lap. The Safety Car forced the American to delay his overtake attempt a few laps. Fortunately, it didn’t completely dismiss his chances.
“Yeah, for me, I was in a position where I knew if I was going to gain any positions, it was going to be at the end. So my race was fairly chill. I mean, me and Luke, who was directly behind me, I mean, we weren’t pushing the entire race. I went once for a fastest lap in the beginning, which I think got taken away at the end, just to see how my pace was. And then again, went right back into relaxing and chilling. I felt no sense of urgency.
“And then kind of 10 laps to go, it all kind of kicked off. I thought I had great pace. You know, when you really fight hard here, the thermal limit of the tyre, you lose that. So of course, when I started to fight Arvid, I lost a bit of grip, so decided that I was just going to get him in the last couple of laps, which actually the safety car kind of ruined my plans because I felt like I was literally going to get him in the next two, three laps. So then I just had to wait again, unfortunately.”
Defying the odds of limited overtakes
The Hungaroring is notoriously tough to overtake around. When questioned about this, and his multiple overtakes, Crawford reiterated the importance of his overtake off of the start. The first sector, especially in the first lap, is a chance for strong battles, and opportunity to overtake. Following this, it is crucial to be able to know when to save tyres, and when to attack.
A key example of this is of course when Martins and Lindblad ahead began to battle, and a door was opened to let Crawford through.
“Obviously, the biggest opportunity to gain places at the start of the race. So I knew that was my chance to gain positions, which I did very well, placed my car in the right spot. I feel like that was super important, obviously, at this track, because you can battle really well in the first sector, um, especially on the first lap of the race. It kind of opens up some opportunities I was able to take advantage of and then, yeah, from then on, it’s just about deciding when to attack and when to not and save potential for when you want to attack.
“So, of course, I saw two opportunities to get close when they started fighting in front of me, Victor and Arvid, to make an overtake and then as well, Arvid, I had to decide when I wanted to pass and when was the right lap. So I had to, to save it all for, for then.”
Aiming to lead the Championship by Summer break
Crawford has spoken on his desire to lead the Championship into the Summer break, and be chased down in the final part of the season. When asked why this is, his answer was simple. The driver with the most points wins, and the more points he has, makes less points left for him to earn. Having the points advantage is ideal for him, as he would rather fight off the drivers below him.
“I mean, by the end of the season, uh, the person with the most points wins. So, you have, it’s true, you have, you know, less points, the winners, let’s say the winners can have 200 points at the end. I’ll be closer to 200 points to than everyone else. So that’s why I say that, um, just because I want to score a lot of points and, uh, I’d rather be chased and have the point advantage and have, you know, less points to, to score to eventually, you know, win the championship.”
Reigniting his Championship fight
After an awful weekend in Spa-Francorchamps, reigniting his Championship fight this weekend was crucial. Sitting in P3, a mere seven points behind the leader Fornaroli, this weekend can mathematically see him returning to the lead. A positive start to the weekend after Qualifying P3, and finishing P3 in the Sprint Race, assists this mission.
Spa-Francorchamps is only the third weekend that Jak Crawford has left without points, Melbourne and Bahrain being the other two. Crawford is hoping that Belgium was simply an off weekend, and it is beginning to look as though that is the case. His pace has been good this weekend, and he has enjoyed following up a terrible weekend with a positive one.
“Yeah, it was, it’s been a great start to the weekend Qualifying and the Sprint Race here. Spa was rough. If I look back to the beginning of the season, it kind of feels like, uh, Bahrain where we kind of just sucked and we’re driving at the back and qualified quite poorly and then rebounded quite well to score very good results after that from Jeddah onwards.
“So, I hope it’s just another kind of bogey weekend, where we kind of forget about it, move on. But yeah, the pace has been great this weekend and it’s always glad when you can come off the back of a really bad weekend and then, straight away, top three in Qualifying and a podium straight away.”
