Jak Crawford took victory in a tightly contested Formula 2 Feature Race, beating Joshua Duerksen and Dino Beganovic to the chequered flag in Baku.
Crawford started on pole, but it wasn’t a simple victory for the American, falling back through the order in the early stages but climbing back to the front and defending keenly all the way to the chequered flag.
He lined up on pole with the championship leader, Leonardo Fornaroli, alongside him. Both drivers had stood on the top step in F2, and both wanted to repeat the performance in Baku.
The Sprint Race featured disrupted running and consistent Safety Cars due to the precarious nature of the close walls around the streets of Baku.
Only three drivers opted for a different strategy; the majority of the grid was on the super soft tyres.
A fight between Crawford and Mini
Fornaroli had a strong start the Invicta taking the lead from Crawford into Turn 1.
Gabriele Mini took advantage of a difficult start for Crawford, getting a better exit from Turn 3 and moving ahead of the American.
Crawford wasn’t ready to give up the place, making it past the Italian around the outside on the start-finish straight, the DAMS Lucas Oil is taking back second place.
Martinius Stenshorne was looking for a podium, as he made up two places in the early stages of the race and by Lap 3 had closed in on Mini in third, the gap just 0.5s.
Meanwhile, the gap out front was a clear 2.2s, and the fighting for second and third allowed the championship leader to disappear out front.
On Lap 5, Stenshorne hit the barriers in Turn 1, the Trident damaged his front suspension, and he was unable to get going again, the fight for a podium cut short for the McLaren junior for the second time.
A Safety Car was brought out as the marshals began to clean up Stenshorne’s Trident, under which the leaders came into the pits, with Fornaroli suffering a slow stop that dropped him down to fourth.
Crawford fell to second, but Mini had the quickest stop as he came out of the pits in the lead.
Pepe Martí took advantage of Fornaroli’s slow stop, leaving the pits in third.
Miniu led the field in the Safety Car restart, the Italian having a clean start, holding his lead. The top 5 were all holding their positions.
Alex Dunne looked at the inside of Fornaroli, but wasn’t close enough to the Italian to make it past.
Vicious fight at the front
However, Mini went deep in the final corners, Crawford making it past the Italian. It was short-lived as Minì got a tow on the start-finish straight, getting back in front of the American.
Dunne made a lunge down the inside of Turn 3 on the championship leader, locking up but avoiding contact and taking fourth place.
Further back, Luke Browning’s race was over, making his way back to the pits after the Brit ran off the track.
On Lap 13, Fornaroli went to make a move on Dunne, but ran into the back of him. Dunne ran wide but managed to keep his car on the road. Fornaroli was given a 10-second penalty for the move.
The top four drivers were all in DRS as the win was on the cards for any of the front-runners. Duerksen closed on the back of Marti’s Campos, the gap just 0.3s.
On Lap 17, Duerksen went down the inside into Turn 1 and made it past the Campos driver.
Crawford out front broke the DRS to Minì, with Duerksen now closing in on the Italian with just 0.4s to the PREMA.
The AIX driver made it past Mini, taking second place. However, the pace of the AIX made him the potential driver to beat, taking the fastest lap.
Down the start finish-straight, Fornaroli made it past Martì and set his sights on Mini in third, the Italian needing to get as far up the order as possible with his penalty.
He made it past his fellow Italian on Lap 21, with Mini struggling to maintain his pace in the closing stages of the race.
Mini lost another place to Dino Beganovic as the struggle continued for the PREMA driver.
Fighting until the flag
Crawford extended his lead to 1.2s as the final five laps loomed. Dürksen matched the leader’s lap time, desperate to close the gap.
Dunne’s weekend went from bad to worse as he found the runoff area, dropping from eighth to 18th.
On Lap 25, Duerksen finally got his AIX within Crawford’s DRS. The gap was brought down to just 0.7s.
On Lap 26, Duerksen went around the outside of Crawford into Turn 1, but Crawford defended keenly. However, the AIX driver looked around the outside at Turn 4.
Dunne was out of the race as he stopped his car in the runoff area. He brought out a yellow flag, but there wasn’t a Safety Car called.
The fight for the lead was still raging, the gap just 0.4s between Crawford and Duerksen.
Into the penultimate lap, Duerksen moved into Crawford’s slipstream, close to the American but not close enough to make it past.
Crawford held off Dürksen to the line, taking the chequered flag first, which moves him into second in the championship order with the win.
Dino Beganovic came home third after Fornaroli’s ten-second penalty was applied, the Italian dropping to fifth.
Mini managed his lack of pace to come home fourth. Marti crossed the line in sixth with his Campos teammate close behind in seventh.
Rafael Villagomez, Richard Verschoor and Sebastian Montoya took the final points playing positions.
However, the stewards intervened after the race, and ruled that Marti was at fault for his role in the incident with Stenshorne, and imposed a 10-second time penalty.
Marti therefore dropped to 11th, pushing everyone behind up one place, giving Ritomo Miyata 10th place.
READ MORE – Dino Beganovic takes dominant maiden F2 Sprint Race win in Baku
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