FEATURE RACE: Crawford wins in Monte Carlo after two Red Flags

Jak Crawford secured his second win of the season in dramatic fashion around the streets of Monte Carlo for DAMS Lucas Oil.

The American made his mandatory stop just prior to a late-race Safety Car to leapfrog the top three and move into the race lead before a second Red Flag ended an already shortened race early.

Leonardo Fornaroli finished second for Invicta Racing after losing the lead late on, while Sebastián Montoya wound up third for PREMA Racing following a late-race penalty for Arvid Lindblad.

AS IT HAPPENED

Pole sitter Alexander Dunne had a slow getaway, and Victor Martins was able to get alongside the Rodin Motorsport car into Turn 1. The pair made contact that left both in the wall at Sainte Devote and resulted in several drivers behind getting caught up in the incident, bringing out the Red Flags.

Along with Dunne and Martins, Richard Verschoor, Gabriele Minì, Ritomo Miyata, Josep María Martí, Max Esterson were all involved in the incident and out of the race.

With the cars cleared, the starting order was declared as the original grid order, adjusted with the removal of the cars involved in the incident.

Fornaroli led the pack at the rolling restart ahead of the remaining 14 cars, with the race running to time instead of the originally scheduled 42 laps.

Joshua Duerksen was looking to pull a pass on Kush Maini for sixth on the first lap of racing, but contact into Rascasse left the AIX Racing driver out of the race. That brought out the Virtual Safety Car as marshals pushed him behind the barriers.

VSC withdrawn, Fornaroli led from Montoya and Lindblad, as the top three escaped up the road from fourth-placed Crawford.

Oliver Goethe was the first to make a mandatory stop from seventh place, switching to the Soft tyres with 23 minutes of the race to go. Dino Beganovic, John Bennett and Sami Meguetounif responded one lap later, rejoining behind the MP Motorsport driver.

Fornaroli had Montoya on his rear wing and with DRS on the race leader, but the PREMA Racing driver couldn’t find a route through for P1.

After tapping the wall at Sainte Devote earlier on, Beganovic went into the barriers at Casino Square, bringing out the Virtual Safety Car once more. That prevented anyone yet to pit from completing their mandatory stop right away.

It was then upgraded to a full Safety Car, but the timing of the switch meant Crawford was able to dive into the pitlane right away after the top three passed pit entry prior to the deployment. The rest of the drivers yet to pit also joined the DAMS Lucas Oil driver in the pitlane for their stops.

Having caught the Safety Car, the top three then made their stops with 10 minutes to go. Lindblad jumped Montoya with a quicker pitstop from Campos, while Fornaroli emerged ahead of the trio once more, but Crawford had done enough to take the lead.

The Red Flag was then thrown once again with the barriers in need of repairing.

It meant Crawford took his second win of 2025 ahead of Fornaroli. Lindblad had crossed the line in third, but the Campos driver was handed a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pitlane, promoting Montoya onto the podium.

Browning was fourth ahead of Lindblad, who fell to fifth. Kush Maini was P6 ahead of Roman Stanek, Amaury Cordeel, Rafael Villagómez, and Goethe in the top 10.

With the race running to a shortened length, Column 2 points were awarded.

KEY QUOTE – Jak Crawford, DAMS Lucas Oil

“Oh my gosh. That was the race of my dreams! Avoiding the crash at the start was just the first bit. Around the Safety Car and trying to get into the pits… Oh my god! It was the craziest thing ever. I’m so lucky, the pace was good too. It was an incredible day.”

THE CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS

Luke Browning moves into the lead of the Drivers’ Championship with another top five finish moving him onto 70 points. Alexander Dunne falls to second on 67, with Leonardo Fornaroli in the top three with 64. Richard Verschoor stays on 59 points in fourth, while Jak Crawford jumps up to fifth with 56 points.

Hitech TGR lead in the Teams’ Standings on 99 points, with Campos Racing second on 92. Invicta Racing are third on 76 points, DAMS Lucas Oil and MP Motorsport are tied on 71 points apiece on fourth and fifth places.

UP NEXT

The final leg of the triple-header comes right away with a trip to Barcelona for Round 6 of the campaign. Action gets underway from May 30 – June 1.