It was perfect sunshine for the third race of the weekend in the ADAC Formula 4 was run at the Lausitzring.
Joey Alders started from Pole Position ahead of David Schumacher and Enzo Fittipaldi. The winners from yesterday, Liam Lawson and Lirim Zendeli, were starting from 7th and 8th respectively.
Following the technical issues from Frederik Vesti yesterday, he should start all the way back in P18, because he retired in Race 2, which is the base for the grid in Race 3.
Alders got the best start ahead of Schumacher.
Leonardo Lorandi unfortunately retired on the very first lap with a broken suspension, but pulled off the circuit, so the marshals could pull his car to a place of safety under local yellow.
Vesti got a great start and was already P12 after the first lap.
Schumacher was under a lot of pressure from Charles Weerts, but all 7 cars were in one long row, without anybody being able to make any decisive moves at that point.
Fittipaldi made a small driving error, losing two positions to Zendeli and Wishofer.
Weerts tried to overtake Schumacher, but outbraked himself, and then came under pressure from teammate Lawson.
Photo: JJ Media
Zendeli tried to overtake his teammate Wishofer in Turn 1, but that didn’t work either. Only a few turns later, Weerts made it past Schumacher, with Lawson being right under the rear wing of Schumacher.
Lawson finally made it past at the start of the 9th lap, making it a Van Amersfoort Racing 1-2-3, while Vesti had made his way to P8. Was a 1-2-3-4 possible before the chequered? He tried to pass Fittipaldi on the outside of Turn 1, but was denied.
Alders lost pace and fell to third behind Lawson. Wishofer instantly put him under pressure, and made a fantastic manoeuvre around the outside in Turn 8. Zendeli was the next to put Alders under pressure, and made it safely past at the first opportunity in Turn 1.
David Schumacher and Joey Alders had a bit of an episode at the exit of Turn 8, where Alders went too wide and slid sideways across the track. In avoidance, Schumacher ended up a long way off onto the grass.
Lawson took the lead of the race with 6 minutes to go. Wishofer and Zendeli closed right up behind Weerts, so nothing was decided.
Vesti overtook Fittipaldi in the fight for 5th, but had a gap of almost 4 seconds to the top 4.
There was a real fight going on for the podium spots. Wishofer tried to overtake Weerts, but was instead under pressure from Zendeli. Zendeli was in P3 for a few meters, but went too wide into the grass, and had to drop to P4 again.
While all that happened, Liam Lawson was able to secure the second win of the weekend, in impressive style, while teammate Charles Weerts got second, ahead of Mick Wishofer, Lirim Zendeli and Frederik Vesti.
Heat 3 was without a doubt the best race regarding action on the track. But that is how it usually is, since the faster drivers are moved down the field, and having to fight back to the front.
Lirim Zendeli still leads the Drives Championship, followed by Liam Lawson 35 points behind, Mick Wishofer a further 30, and Enzo Fittipaldi 2 more behind.
US Racing – CHRS leads the Teams Cup ahead of Van Amersfoort Racing and Prema Theodore Racing.
David Schumacher leads the Rookie Cup, with Niklas Krütten only 4 points behind, and Joey Alders a further 42 points behind.
The next round of this year’s ADAC Formula 4 will be run in three weeks’ time, when they once again will share the Red Bull Ring in Austria with ADAC GT Masters, from 8 to 10 June.
