Surprise pole-sitters at the Lausitzring: Finland’s Elias Seppänen (US Racing) and Russia’s Kirill Smal (R-ace GP) took the Pirelli Pole Position Award for the first two of three races on the penultimate weekend of the 2020 ADAC Formula 4. The wet conditions at the Lausitzring proved highly challenging for the talented youngsters and brought out the red flags no fewer than three times. Amid the chaos, Seppänen and Smal kept their cool. For their first ever pole position in the ADAC High-Speed Academy of the ADAC, they each received a Pirelli espresso machine. In Seppänen’s case, it was like an early birthday gift, one day before he turns 17, and gives him renewed hope in the title fight. Saturday’s race starts at 12:00 CET noon; the other two races are scheduled for Sunday (09:00 and 12:30 CET).

Free-to-air TV channel SPORT1 will be showing the races from the High-Speed Academy, and they can also be watched online as a livestream on SPORT1.de, YouTube.com/adac, the Facebook page of ADAC Formula 4 and adac.de/motorsport.

"The pole should be a big advantage, because rain has been forecast and the spray will be quite intense," said Seppänen. "Even though it’s my birthday tomorrow, nothing will change in my approach. It will be a race like any other, but of course winning would be cool." He moved to the top of the timesheets in the last few minutes of Q1, displacing Berliner Joshua Dürksen (ADAC Berlin-Brandenburg e.V.). A red flag on the last lap denied his opponents one last chance to better his time. The US Racing duo of Tim Tramnitz and Oliver Bearman will start from the second row of the grid. In fifth place is their team-mate Vladislav Lomko, making it a highly successful session for the Kerpen-based squad.

Jonny Edgar and Jak Crawford (both Van Amersfoort) had a less satisfactory session. The two Red Bull Juniors, who occupy the Top Two places in the championship, could qualify no higher than sixth and seventh. If the race were to finish as it starts, Seppänen would hollow out Edgar’s current 46-point lead and suddenly be back in contention with a realistic chance of winning the title. French teenager Victor Bernier (R-ace GP) had to settle for eighth place after setting the best time in both free practice sessions. Completing the Top Ten were Bernier’s team-mates Smal and Roee Meyuhas.

Championship leader Edgar booked an even less auspicious grid position for the second race. After spinning off track and causing the red flag to come out, the English 16-year-old had to abandon Q2 and did not even register a time. This means that Edgar will start Race 2 from the back of the grid. Things went considerably better for Crawford, who starts from P2 alongside surprise pole-sitter Smal. The second row of the grid is again monopolised by US Racing, with Tramnitz qualifying third ahead of Seppänen. Bernier and Bearman are on row three, followed by Dürksen and Lomko ahead of Meyuhas and Erick Zuniga.