Liam Lawson (16, New Zealand, Van Amersfoort Racing) took his third win of the season during this fourth ADAC Formula 4 race weekend. The championship contender, who had finished third earlier on Saturday, was first across the line at the Red Bull Ring, coming home in front of team-mate Frederik Vesti (16, Denmark, Van Amersfoort Racing) and reducing the gap to 24 points on our champion at the half-way stage in the season, Lirim Zendeli (18, Germany, US Racing CHRS).
"It was an excellent race and a great weekend. We were able to take more points out of Zendeli, so that was good too," said young Lawson. "We'll go on working hard."
Currently in second place overall in the standings, Lawson had been in third place on the grid and after six laps, overtook rookie Niklas Krütten (15, Germany, ADAC Berlin-Brandenburg eV), who had gone by pole-sitter Andreas Estner (17, Germany, Neuhauser Racing) in the first turn. Krütten in third place took his second podium finish of the season, increasing his lead in the Rookie classification on his rival, David Schumacher (16, Germany, USA Racing CHRS) to 13 points.
"A 13-point-lead on David - that sounds most excellent. It feels very liberating to finish on top in the end. David pulled away really well, and maybe got a bit too far in front for my liking, but the rookie win was all we could achieve," said Krütten. "And that's why I'm very happy, for sure. The two Van Amersfoort drivers were too fast for us today."
Oliver Caldwell (15, Great Britain, Prema Theodore Racing), championship leader Zendeli and local driver Mick Wishofer (18, Austria, US Racing CHRS) slotted into position behind the top three podium finishers. Schumacher, son of ex-Formula 1 driver Ralf Schumacher, had started out from the last row but moved up into seventh place. Charles Weerts (17, Belgium, Van Amersfoort Racing), Andreas Estner and rookie Joey Alders (18, Netherlands, Van Amersfoort Racing) came home behind them to complete the Top Ten.
In six weeks' time, the ADAC Formula 4 drivers will be back in action again at the Hockenheimring after their summer break to contest races 13 and 14 during the German Formula 1 Grand Prix. SPORT1 will broadcast racing from this fourth season of the ADAC high-speed school on TV. All races are also freely available to watch online as livestream at sport1.de, adac.de/motorsport and youtube.com/adac.
Further comments from ADAC Formula 4
Frederik Vesti (Van Amersfoort Racing): "I'm not all that satisfied really. I'm not terribly disappointed but not happy either. I was involved in a lot of scraps and was unable to move any further forwards. A win today should have been possible. Our pace was fast enough. Of course, I'm pleased about the 18 points for my team, but that bit more ought to have been possible."