Crawford: ‘More on the table’ but DAMS Lucas Oil well placed for Monte Carlo

Jak Crawford took to the top step once again in Formula 2 on Saturday as the DAMS Lucas Oil driver won the Sprint Race around Imola, but the American says things could have been even better.

The Aston Martin Development driver wound up finishing sixth in the Feature Race on Sunday, and speaking afterwards, he explained why he was still satisfied with the results despite missing out on a second podium of the weekend.

“I was pretty happy with the amount of points we’ve got,” he said. “20 points in Jeddah, 18 points this weekend. That's pretty good to be consistent in the championship, especially with those amount of points.

“Definitely a bit frustrated not to take more points from the Feature Race as we definitely could have ended with a win or a podium, for sure, but still pretty happy with the weekend.”

Having been on the tail of the leading pack going into the pitstop phase early on in Sunday’s race, he lost out to eventual podium finisher Luke Browning.

From there, he had to fight to stay on the attack but was in the DRS queue, as those on the conventional strategy met drivers yet to pit on the tyres they started the race on.

It made overtaking tricky, with Crawford saying that P6 was the best he and DAMS could manage in the circumstances.

“We had done everything right on the first stint, and then we lost out in the pitstop. We had a slow stop where we lost out to Browning, who eventually came out in P2 and me all the way down in P6, so went from basically fighting for the lead, trying to do an overcut, to falling back to P6.

“After that it was kind of a train and was a bit messy after the Safety Car, it became difficult to pass, but, at the end of the day, we maximised the result. I feel like I maximised the result with what I had gotten after the pitstop.”

Looking ahead to Monte Carlo, Crawford says that the team’s performance from the Imola weekend was a confidence-building weekend going into the remainder of the triple-header.

Asked whether he was pleased with how things had gone overall, the DAMS driver said he was and that it boded well for the upcoming rounds.

“I think so definitely. Unfortunately, just had some small mistakes. Qualifying was not our fault. And then from there, with everything we were given, we did a good job.

“We did a good job on Saturday in the Sprint to maximise the result. And then today, I do feel we left a bit on the table. but we’re going in the right direction, and we're always seem to be competitive.

“Hopefully we can have a good weekend around Monaco, it's always a bit tricky sometimes. But I see no reason why we can’t have a good weekend.”