Formula 2 Austria: Crawford triumphs in the sprint

Jak Crawford began the dash race in Austria from pole place and introduced his first victory in System 2 safely throughout the end line. After a small mistake at first of the race, he regained the lead with an excellent tire technique. He was capable of maintain his floor in entrance of Sunday’s pole man Victor Martins, who made a comeback from tenth place.

The beginning lineup: Jak Crawford secured reverse grid pole for the dash race in qualifying. The Hitech driver shared the entrance row with Jehan Daruvala. Behind them had been Arthur Leclerc, Amaury Cordeel and Enzo Fittipaldi. Jack Doohan, Kush Maini, Theo Pourchaire, Frederik Vesti and qualifying winner Victor Martins full the highest 10.

The beginning: The dash race was held at 17 levels air temperature and 22 levels monitor temperature. The formation lap and the primary lap of the race had been carried out behind the protection automobile because of the moist circumstances. Beforehand, the rain had additionally cut up the methods of the System 2 drivers.

Leclerc, Pourchaire, Vesti, Verschoor, Hauger, Nissany, Maloney, Iwasa, Nissany, Bearman and Boschung began on the rain tires. Solely Nissany pitted for recent slicks earlier than the standing begin. Leclerc acquired off to a superb begin on the rain tires and was capable of make up a place. After Crawford misbraked, he misplaced the result in Leclerc and dropped to sixth.

Additional course of the race: Daruvala flew off shortly after the beginning, the Virtuosi driver acquired caught within the gravel mattress and triggered a security automobile section. In the meantime, Vesti, Hauger, Benavides and Bearman got here into the pits and switched to slicks. The chief Leclerc adopted swimsuit after the monitor had dried an increasing number of.

After 13 laps, Crawford, Correa and Martins fashioned the highest 3. The pole setter for Sunday was additionally capable of squeeze previous Correa one lap later. At this level, Crawford nonetheless had a lead of virtually two seconds. In the meantime, Correa was being pressured by Novalak within the battle for third place. The Van Amersfoort driver needed to admit defeat a number of laps later.

On lap 18, Fittipaldi spun between turns three and 4. Kush Maini gave the Brazilian too little house, who needed to swerve onto the moist grass and misplaced management within the course of. The younger drivers thus triggered a digital security automobile section. The prolonged lead between Crawford and Martins then shrank. Within the ultimate section, nevertheless, the Hitech driver was not threatened by the person behind him. The rookie thus secured his first race victory in System 2.

The end result: Martins was crushed by Crawford and completed second. Novalak was on the rostrum for the primary time within the 2023 season with rank 3. Hadjar simply missed the rostrum in 4th, Correa was fifth forward of Stanek, Hauger and Doohan. The highest 4 of the championship, Frederik Vesti, Theo Pourchaire, Ayumu Iwasa and Oliver Bearman all went away empty-handed.