16-year-old Red Bull Junior Dennis Hauger, who drives for Van Amersfoort Racing and is in third place in the overall standings, posted the first best time of the weekend in the first ADAC Formula 4 practice session at the Nürburgring. On a dry track in air temperatures of around 18 degrees, he set a time of 1:28.184 minutes which was a mere eight thousandths of a second ahead of front-runner in the standings, Théo Pourchaire. The 15-year-old French teenager led home no less than three US Racing CHRS drivers, as Alessandro Ghiretti (17, France) and Arthur Leclerc (18, Monaco) slotted into third and fourth place respectively behind him.

The outfit managed by team bosses, Ralf Schumacher and Gerhard Ungar, would like to extend their lead in the three classifications in their home fixture at the famous circuit in the Eifel. Pourchaire is currently first in the drivers’ standings ahead of Arthur Leclerc, brother of Formula 1 star Charles Leclerc while Roman Stanek (15, Czech Republic) is best Rookie. He set the sixth-fastest time of the morning. US Racing CHRS are also ahead of their rivals in the team competition.

The ADAC High-Speed Academy’s juniors will be back in action this afternoon for FP2 at 1.05 pm. Qualifying is at 5.20 pm. The lights will turn green for the twelfth race of the season on Saturday at 11.05 am. The 17 drivers will then contest the weekend’s next two races on Sunday at 9.50 am and 5.00 pm.

SPORT1 will broadcast the ADAC Formula 4 races on TV on Saturday and Sunday and online at SPORT1.de. Racing can also be watched as live stream at adac.de/motorsport, on the Facebook page of the ADAC Formula 4 and at youtube.com/adac with a choice of German or English commentary.