FEATURE RACE: Crawford holds off Duerksen to take superb victory in Baku

Jak Crawford held off a charging Joshua Duerksen across the line to take a third Feature Race victory of the season in Baku, putting the DAMS Lucas Oil driver up to second in the Drivers’ Championship Standings.

The American lost pole at the start, but following a Safety Car restart, managed to regain the lead, before going on to win the race. Leonardo Fornaroli finished third on the road, but a 10-second time penalty dropped him to fifth, promoting Dino Beganovic onto the podium in third.

AS IT HAPPENED

It was a superb start from Fornaroli in second, as he took the lead ahead of pole-sitter Jak Crawford going into Turn 1. The DAMS driver was then down to third after losing out to Gabriele Minì on the run to Turn 3.

However, as they came across the line to start Lap 2, Crawford took the place back from Minì, while Martinius Stenshorne, having overtaken Alexander Dunne on the opening lap, got past Josep María Martí for fourth into Turn 1.

Luke Browning, whose slow start dropped him from fifth to eighth then ran wide at Turn 16, allowing teammate Beganovic through.

At the start of Lap 4 of 29, Fornaroli had a lead of 2.2s to Crawford, while in the battle for the points, Duerksen overtook Browning for P9 into Turn 1.

On the next lap and after going side-by-side with Martí into Turn 1, Stenshorne wound up in the barrier, bringing out the Safety Car.

With the majority of the grid having started on the Supersoft tyres, they all took their mandatory stops on Lap 6, changing to the Softs.

Minì came out of the busy pitlane in front Crawford, with Martí third, while Fornaroli was down to fourth but ahead of Dunne.

Racing resumed on Lap 8, and the PREMA driver kept the lead, while further behind, Duerksen dived to the inside of Beganovic at Turn 1 to take P6.

However, the race leader ran too wide at Turn 16, allowing Crawford to briefly take the position, although Minì retook P1 at Turn 1 with the slipstream.

Browning lost out in the mandatory stops and was down to P16 at the restart, before a collision with Roman Stanek caused him to stop on track. The Briton brought his car back into the pitlane, before coming back out a lap down.

Fornaroli’s frustrating few laps were then made even worse when Dunne dived to the inside of the Invicta driver at Turn 3, demoting him to P5.

Onto Lap 10 and the top two were continuing their battle as Crawford used the DRS to take the lead into Turn 1.

Fornaroli was looking to retake fifth place from Dunne at the end of Lap 12. However, the Italian ran into the back of his rival at Turn 1, sending the Rodin Motorsport off the road. He was able to continue on, but dropped to P10. Fornaroli was later handed a 10-second time penalty for causing the collision.

Lap 15 got underway with Duerksen, having taken advantage of Fornaroli and Dunne’s incident to get up to fourth, right on the back of Martí in the battle for P3.

The AIX driver made his move at the start of Lap 17, getting past his Campos rival for the final spot on the podium into Turn 1.

Minì had lost more ground to the leader and was down to P3 at the start of Lap 19, with Duerksen getting past once again at Turn 1.

Fornaroli was now keen to get a move on, and after going wheel-to-wheel through the first sector with Martí, he overtook the Spaniard down the main straight for fourth.

The Invicta driver was up to third on Lap 21, getting past Minì into Turn 1, while right behind him, Beganovic also got ahead of Martí for fifth.

The Swede was up to fourth on the next lap, with a move Minì for down the main straight. Out in front, Duerksen was slowly closing in on the lead, and was 1.1s behind Crawford on Lap 24.

The AIX driver closed to within 0.5s by lap 26, and while he had the DRS advantage, the race leader kept him at bay through both zones at the start of the lap.

On the penultimate lap, Crawford once again resisted Duerksen’s attempts to overtake, all while Fornaroli was closing in on the leading pair.

Duerksen did all he could to get ahead, but Crawford held him off to convert pole into a third Feature Race victory of the season, while the AIX driver went from P15 to second.

Fornaroli’s time penalty dropped him to fifth, promoting Beganovic to third and Minì to fourth, as Martí took sixth ahead of his Campos Racing teammate Arvid Lindblad. Rafael Villagómez took eighth for Van Amersfoort Racing, with Richard Verschoor ninth and Sebastián Montoya in 10th.

KEY QUOTE – Jak Crawford, DAMS Lucas Oil

“It’s a great day for me, a great day for the Championship. I feel like I did a great race, although not quite with the ultimate pace, but I managed my track position well and very happy with the result.”

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS

Leonardo Fornaroli continues to lead the Drivers’ Championship on 188 points, while Jak Crawford is up to second on 169 points, with Luke Browning in third on 161. Richard Verschoor is fourth with 149 points, while Alexander Dunne rounds out the top five on 130.

In the Teams’ Standings, Invicta Racing continue to lead the way on 269 points, but Hitech TGR are now only 12 points behind in second. Campos Racing are third on 227 points, ahead of DAMS Lucas Oil on 195, as MP Motorsport round out the top five on 172 points.

UP NEXT

The paddock will now have a take a break before reconvening in Lusail for the penultimate round of this 2025 campaign from November 28-30.