Crawford claims podium finish in hectic Race 1
Jak Crawford claimed his first podium finish with PREMA Racing at Imola, as the FIA Formula 3 Championship went underway with Race 1 today.
The Red Bull Junior American mastered a heavily disrupted race featuring safety cars and contacts and after delivering a solid race, keeping out of trouble, eventually made his way to P3 at the end with an amazing pace starting from P9 on the grid.
Teammates Oliver Bearman and Arthur Leclerc got their share of issues. The British racer had a couple of offs as he dealt with packed competition, especially in the opening stages. Starting from P11 due to an impeding penalty from qualifying, Bearman eventually finished in P13.
Leclerc started from P21 after being crashed out of qualifying. The Monegasque recovered well and even managed to clinch P12, but a late off pushed him back down to P14.
#4 ARTHUR LECLERC
“Very difficult race. As expected, it was very hard to overtake. I went close to fighting for the points, but then I tried to resist in T6, which didn’t work, so I ended up in the gravel and lost a couple of positions. From there, it was hard to come back again. On to the next one, we will try to take all the opportunities and not make the same mistakes.”
Qualifying: P21
Starting Position Race 1: P21
Fastest lap: 1:43.619
Race 1: P14
#5 JAK CRAWFORD
“It was a good race, I had a nice start, but I was boxed-in. There was a lot of chaos, and it was tight in turn 2. Otherwise, the race was positive. It was difficult to overtake as everyone had DRS, but I made my way into P6 quickly and after that, there were a lot of safety cars. There was always something happening in front or behind me However, the speed was really really good. By the end of the race, if we had clear laps, we could have won the race, but I’m still happy with the pace.”
Qualifying: P3
Starting Position Race 1: P9
Fastest lap: 1’41″296
Race 1: P3
#6 OLIVER BEARMAN
“It was quite a tough race. I got pushed off in turn 2 at the start of the second lap, and I went quite far back. I started to go forward again, and I had a really good pace, but another coming together got me to the back again. My position was like a yo-yo going back up and down. It was good learning for tomorrow, we need to put it all together.”
Qualifying: P3
Starting Position Race 1: P9
Fastest lap: 1’41″589
Race 1: P13
Source | Photo: PREMA Racing