DAMS Lucas Oil enjoyed an incredible weekend in Barcelona, securing a Feature Race victory with Jak Crawford and podium with Juan Manuel Correa.

On Friday, the DAMS Lucas Oil drivers both qualified in the top-10, with Crawford securing a front row start for Sunday’s Feature Race, narrowly missing out on pole by 0.002 seconds. Juan Manuel Correa would earn P8, meaning he would start the Sprint Race on Saturday from third on the grid.

The American-Ecuadorian showed his experience by managing his tyres well to make a late overtake which initially took him onto the podium, before a post-race penalty demoted him to P8, due to a track limits violation. On the other side of the garage, Crawford showed a strong pace throughout, allowing him to move up four positions to claim P4.

The Aston Martin Development Programme member retained second position off the line in the Feature Race, before pitting on Lap 9 to put the hard tyres on. A handful of laps later, Crawford would take the net lead of the race, with a brilliant overtake at Turn 3, before managing the reminder of the stint expertly to take his maiden Formula 2 Feature Race victory.

Correa opted for the alternate strategy, making his stop for fresh soft rubber on Lap 28. He came out in ninth before taking advantage of the new tyres to make his way up to third, with some stunning overtakes to secure his first podium since returning to Formula 2.

Jak Crawford: “I’m so pleased to get my first Feature Race win in Formula 2, to cap off an excellent weekend for the whole team! I’m thrilled to be on the podium with JM as well, and so proud of him. Everyone back at the workshop has been working so hard to fix our qualifying issues, and we’ve done that this weekend to help us take an awesome haul of points. It’s the perfect way to go into a very busy schedule that we have coming up, with four events in the next five weeks, where we will look to have more results like this as a team.”

Qualifying: 2nd |  Sprint Race: 4th (+5 points)  |  Feature Race: 1st (+25 points)

Juan Manuel Correa: “I’m thrilled be back on the podium in Formula 2 for the first time since I returned to the series. The car has been amazing all weekend long, as we’ve been in the top-eight in every session. I’m overjoyed that all the hard work behind the scenes has paid off, and I’m very thankful to the whole team for their effort. It’s a massive step for us, and we’re looking to take this forward for the rest of the season.”

Qualifying: 8th  |  Sprint Race: 8th (+1 point)  |  Feature Race: 3rd (+15 points)

Charles Pic, Team Owner: “I’m absolutely delighted with the efforts of the whole team who have helped to contribute to this amazing result! We looked strong all weekend and I’m so pleased to have Jak stand on the top step of the podium as well as JM in third. There’s been a lot of hard work behind the scenes to improve, especially in qualifying and in this event it all came together for a great outcome.

“We opted to pit early with Jak and he made the undercut work effectively to take the net lead. Then, the second half of the race was fairly simple as he brought it home for the win. JM went long on the hard tyres, pushing throughout and building the performance, setting a great pace. We pitted at the right time and on the soft rubber he had an advantage on those ahead and worked his way up to P3 with some great overtakes. Thank you very much to the team, and now we need to keep our focus and carry this momentum forwards.”

Image: Dutch Photo Agency