The third round of the ADAC Formula 4 is over, and the motor racing juniors once again produced plenty of exciting, top-class racing during their second weekend with the DTM at the Lausitzring. Liam Lawson (16, New Zealand, Van Amersfoort Racing) did especially well in front of the big crowd, securing two wins and the position of runner-up in the second race. As a result, Lawson took 68 of the possible 75 points to emerge as the main rival of Lirim Zendeli (18, Germany, US Racing - CHRS), who notched up his fifth win of the season at the Lausitzring.
Things were very close as usual in the Rookie stakes. In all three races, a different rookie took his place on the podium as the fastest home. In Race 1, it was Ido Cohen (16, Israel, ADAC Berlin-Brandenburg eV), Race 2 went to David Schumacher (16, Germany, USA Racing - CHRS) and the third race to Niklas Krütten (15, Germany, ADAC Berlin-Brandenburg eV).
The ADAC Formula 4 drivers now have a break of three weeks before we find out the name of the interim championship leader half-way through the season at the Red Bull Ring where races ten, eleven and twelve are calendared for the weekend of 8th to the 10th of June and will be run under the ADAC GT Masters banner. SPORT1 will broadcast racing from the ADAC high-speed school on TV. All races will also be freely available online as livestream at sport1.de, adac.de/motorsport and youtube.com/adac.
The man to beat: Liam Lawson himself could hardly believe just how successful this race weekend had turned out for him. With two victories, a second place, and plenty of fine overtaking manoeuvres, the young man from New Zealand impressively showed everyone that he is a real force to be reckoned with this year. "The team are doing an outstanding job," he told us. "I'm lost for words to be honest. We had some problems on Friday, so I never really thought that such success could be possible. It's terrific that we were able to show just how fast we are."
Five from nine so far: Lirim Zendeli (18, Germany, US Racing - CHRS) is currently the only one, who is even faster than Lawson. The championship leader celebrated his fifth win of the season on Saturday and thus found the right reply to the technical problem that had slowed him down in the first race. Zendeli: "It's nice to be up there again on the top rung. The first race was soon over and forgotten. I'm now looking ahead to the future and want to extend my lead even further. Everything feels really great at the moment, but the tide can quickly turn."
Speedy Rookies: Three races took place at the Lausitzring this weekend, and each time, a different rookie finished on the podium, which just goes to show how competitive things are in the Rookie stakes. For the first time, Israeli driver Ido Cohen was the fastest junior, but David Schumacher and Niklas Krütten have already secured several podiums each and have one goal in mind, to win the Rookie classification.
Famous names on podium: The young talents had another reason to be cheerful as they took their places on the ADAC Formula 4 podium. Some famous names were on hand to present them with their trophies. Mikkel Jensen (BMW M Motorsport Junior, 2014 Formel ADAC Champion) was among them. He was joined by ITR Managing Director Achim Kostron, Kai Winkler from Pirelli Germany, former DTM driver and now Team Principal Olaf Manthey plus Dr Hans-Gerd Ennser, Vice-President of the DMSB.
Big stage: Huge numbers of spectators came to the DTM's second race weekend at the Lausitzring as they did for the season opener at the start of May - and this gave the young ADAC Formula 4 drivers a boost as they produced plenty of exciting racing on this big stage. The drivers in the high-speed school will be back racing again as part of the ADAC GT Masters at the Red Bull Ring (June 8th - 10th) before the highlight of the race calendar follows when the ADAC Formula 4 drivers will be in action as support to the German Formula 1 race at Hockenheim (July 20th - 22nd).
Concert and DFB cup match: Saturday night was a big hit with both the fans of music and football among the ADAC Formula 4 juniors, because first, there was a one-hour concert in the paddock with top band "Gestört aber GeiL" which was then followed by the DFB Cup final from Berlin shown on the big video screens.
The Alps are beckoning: The ADAC Formula 4 drivers now have three weeks, in which to prepare for their next big task, as vital championship points will be up for grabs at the Red Bull Ring where a race meeting is being held outside of Germany for the first and only time this year. Who will be champion half-way through the season? Races ten, eleven and twelve will give us the answer, and the spectacular circuit in Austria's high mountains will provide the perfect setting.