Crawford happy with P4 after ‘fun’ Baku Sprint Race

Jak Crawford continued his tremendous kind in Baku as he charged his manner by the sphere to complete fourth within the Baku Sprint Race.

The DAMS Lucas Oil driver took pole in Friday’s Qualifying session, leaving him beginning down in tenth place when the grid was reverse for Saturday’s 21-lap occasion.

A great begin noticed Crawford rise up to eighth on Lap 1, and he gained another place with an overtake on title rival Leonardo Fornaroli on the finish of Lap 7.

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The American gained much more positions when each Martinius Stenshorne and Sebastián Montoya dropped by the sphere with points, earlier than a transfer previous Gabriele Minì on Lap 19 put him to fourth.

Crawford didn’t fairly have sufficient to overhaul Alexander Dunne for third, however talking afterwards, he was happy with how the race went.

“Very pleased but very tricky,” mirrored Crawford. “The colder conditions today and a little bit of drizzle made it a little bit tough on the restarts and obviously the race start.

“I feel like once you survive the race starts you get into a rhythm, and if you can survive those moments at the restarts, you can survive the race.

“It was definitely fun though. The conditions were not easy, they were a lot different to yesterday so we had to drive a little bit different. Obviously, we are in a race conditions so we have to deal with tyre wear.

“It became a little bit tricker than the past few days to drive, everyone was pretty sensible to be honest, no one was making huge mistakes, everyone was taking it easy before pushing on the last five laps.”

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Talking by the overtakes he made, Crawford mentioned it was all about profiting from the drivers forward being concerned in battles.

“There are lots of opportunities at this track just by keeping it clean,” mentioned Crawford. “I was able to attack when some others were getting into fights.

“I saw some moments with Fornaroli when he was in a fight and then with Minì when he was in a fight right after I was able to overtake him. I was just biding my time and eventually I could make my way up.”

Crawford is ready to begin from pole in Sunday’s Feature Race, and he picked out just a few issues he realized from the Sprint, together with how effectively Saturday’s winner Dino Beganovic carried out on the entrance of the sphere.

“We have a lot of good stuff,” mentioned Crawford when requested concerning the information collected from the Sprint Race. “I think clean air is crucial, as we saw with Dino today.

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“Everyone else seemed to struggle after battling and fighting, so clean air will be crucial, and having that will be the best position to be in.

“You have good tyres, you are in the lead and you are able to do your own race. That is what we need to find. From the car side, I think we have some good stuff today, we are already quite quick, so it will be about fixing small things.”