Crawford eyeing Spielberg Feature Race podium after coming through the field in the Sprint

Jak Crawford produced a strong performance in the Spielberg Sprint Race, climbing up the order to finish in sixth place and the DAMS Lucas Oil driver believes it bodes well for Sunday’s Feature.

The Aston Martin Development Driver qualified in 14th on Friday but made steady progress throughout the 28-lap event.

After a solid start, he maintained position in the midfield looking to manage his tyres before pushing on late in the race, pulling off some impressive overtakes on the likes of Joshua Duerksen and Kush Maini to finish sixth.

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Reflecting on the Sprint Race after returning to the paddock, Crawford said: “It was a very hectic first two laps. I tried making up as many positions as I could at the start of the race, which I did, I think I was 11th after Lap 2.

“I didn't really make any overtakes until nine laps to go from there, so kind of just sat back, saved my tyres a bit and then the last 10 laps I really attacked everyone.

“I think I set one of my best laps of the race with like three laps to go so I was really just using it all in the last 10 laps.”

“I knew we'd have good pace, but I had to be patient. I think it was exactly my game plan what happened today which was to just attack in the last 10 laps where we know we would have a little bit less issues with the tyres than the others.

“I found out some things in the race which helped with the tyres as well, which gave me extra performance. I think it was a well-executed race and I think that was the best we could have done.”

With Pirelli having brought the Supersoft and Soft tyres to the track this weekend, the latter was the compound of choice for all 22 drivers in the Sprint Race.

In hot temperatures, degradation affected a few drivers, but Crawford admitted that while he did have to take care of his tyres, he thought they would fall off quicker. What did play a major part though for the American were the three DRS zones.

“To be honest the DRS is really powerful around here with three zones in a row,” said Crawford. “You can be six, seven-tenths back at the start of the lap and then be on someone's gearbox when you get to Turn 4, so it's very powerful.

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“But the tyres overheat a lot when you are in a train. When I got out in clean air, I started to gain a lot more pace just because my tyres started to cool down a lot. A lot of it is the tyres overheating.”

Crawford also commended the team’s race pace revealing that they found something at the in-season test in Barcelona that they have used since that has been beneficial.

He concedes that it did not work all that well in Qualifying when they used the Supersoft tyre, but the DAMS driver is confident that he can go through the field again in the Feature.

“I honestly think we can fight for a podium,” said Crawford. “We will have to make the race strategy call, but I think we have good pace. We were fighting with the guys starting on the front row like Hauger and Duerksen.

“I think I passed Duerksen and was the same pace and catching Hauger, so we have the pace of the guys at the front so it's just about getting the right strategy to be up there.”