In the first ADAC Formula 4 free practice session at the Nürburgring, it was Nikita Bedrin (ITA/PHM Racing) who set the best time. The 16-year-old coped best with the wet conditions on the former Formula 1 track in the morning, and drove into first place with a time of 1:37.867 minutes. At midday it was his team-mate Taylor Barnard (18) from Great Britain who completed the fastest lap, in 1:27.658 minutes on a dry track.
The emerging motorsport stars started the weekend as part of the ADAC GT Masters in temperatures of 17 degrees Celsius. Barnard finished 0.088 seconds behind his team-mate Bedrin. Australia’s James Wharton (16/Prema Racing) finished in third place, making him the best rookie (+0.227 seconds), and Rasmus Joutsimies (19/FIN/Jenzer Motorsport) finished in fourth place (+0.235 seconds).
The conditions on the 3.629-kilometer track at the foot of Nürburg Castle were much better in the second free practice session. On slicks and in temperatures of 18 degrees Celsius, Barnard set the fastest lap of the day, at 1:27.658 minutes. Second place went to Wharton (+0.067 seconds), the best rookie of the session. Andrea Kimi Antonelli (15/ITA/Prema Racing), who currently leads the championship, was the third fastest (+0.231 seconds). While Valentin Kluss (15/Bad Mergentheim/PHM Racing) was the best German, finishing in seventh place (+0.898 seconds).
The two ADAC Formula 4 qualifying sessions will be held this afternoon. Follow the battle for pole position via the live timing on adac.de/motorsport from 17:25 CEST. The first race at the Nürburgring gets underway on Saturday at 11:35 CEST, and will be streamed live on motorsport.tv and adac.de/motorsport.
