Gran Premio Emilia-Romagna – Sprint: Jak Crawford dominates F2 sprint race at Imola

The American driver, Jak Crawford, won the Formula 2 sprint race at the Imola circuit, becoming the fifth different winner of the 2025 season. The DAMS Lucas Oil driver took control from the start and never let go of his grip on the race, crossing the finish line with a 1.1-second lead over Arvid Lindblad (Campos Racing) and Luke Browning (Hitech TGR).

A decisive departure

Ritomo Miyata, who started from pole position after the grid inversion, lost his advantage as soon as the lights went out. Crawford, starting from second position, executed a perfect launch to take the lead before the first corner. Behind, Lindblad also had an excellent start, climbing from fifth to third place.

The start of the race was marked by a few incidents, notably for Sami Meguetounif (Trident) who stalled on the grid and had to join the track in last position after a pit stop. Pepe Marti (Campos Racing) and Gabriele Mini (Prema) also encountered difficulties after running wide at turn 5, with the Spanish driver damaging the front wing of his car.

Crawford sets his pace

From the fifth lap, Crawford had built a lead of more than one second, putting himself out of the DRS range of his pursuers. Miyata momentarily reduced the gap, but was never able to put real pressure on the American leader.

As the laps went by, Miyata began to experience significant tire degradation, allowing Lindblad to close in. After an unsuccessful attempt on lap 11, the British Campos Racing driver finally overtook the ART Grand Prix car on lap 12. By then, Crawford had already opened up a gap of more than two seconds.

Browning followed Lindblad’s example by passing Miyata on lap 14 to take third place, mirrored a lap later by Victor Martins, who also overtook his teammate at ART.

A race ending under pressure

In the final laps, Lindblad had significantly closed the gap with Crawford, but the DAMS driver kept his cool to manage his tires perfectly until the finish line.

At the back of the pack, championship leader Richard Verschoor, who started 19th after a difficult qualifying session, had to retire a few laps before the finish, further jeopardizing his weekend.

Amaury Cordeel (Rodin) caused a brief deployment of the yellow flags after going off the track but was able to resume his race without assistance.

Final standings and championship implications

Crawford finally emerged victorious ahead of Lindblad and Browning, followed by Martins and Alexander Dunne (Rodin). Miyata finished sixth, ahead of the Invicta Racing duo of Leonardo Fornaroli and Roman Stanek, who completed the points positions.

In the drivers’ championship, despite his retirement, Verschoor retains the lead with 53 points but sees his advantage shrink over Fornaroli (42 points), who climbs to second place, one point ahead of Josep María Martí, now in third. Browning and Dunne complete the top 5.

On the constructors’ side, Campos Racing remains in the lead with 73 points, ahead of MP Motorsport (59) and Hitech TGR (52). The main race will take place today at 10 AM, with Dino Beganovic (Hitech TGR) in pole position.

Sprint race results