Joey Mawson took race two pole after his ADAC Formula 4 championship rival Mick Schumacher was unable to complete the session. Mawson has a ten place grid penalty though, so it will be Thomas Preining who starts at the front for race one.
Group A
As the first group got underway, it was once again Juri Vips who stormed to the front. After topping the second practice session, the Prema Powerteam driver was back on form as the session got underway.
Jannes Fittje found his way to the front briefly before Thomas Preining took the initiative. Vips responded, but was unable to overthrow the Austrian who’ll be looking for a strong result at his home venue.
As Qualifying Group A continued, Preining, Fittje and Vips continued their battle for supremacy. A number of front-runners were struggling to show their pace though. Mike Ortmann pitted quite early on, and would only improve in the second half.
With half a minute left on the clock, Preining broke the 1 minute 31 second barrier, topping the group with a 1min 30.999. Fittje’s fastest time was deleted for track limits, handing second to Vips with Ortmann in fourth. Felipe Drugovich was the best of the rest in fifth for group A.
Group B
To the shock of many, it was Lirim Zendeli who was the man to beat in the opening 5 minutes. The Mucke Motorsport rookie has shown his pace this season and used the advantage to grab the attention of the teams.
Half-time Champion Mawson chose to stay in the pits for the first half, making the most of the free air around him. Meanwhile, championship rival Schumacher went fastest, as even Zendeli was unable to respond. Mawson finally managed to set a complete a competitive time just as the red flag was deployed.
Crucially for the Australian, it appeared to be his championship rival; Schumacher, that had caused the stoppage.
It soon became a battle for second place as a number of drivers jumped up the order. The time from Kim-Luis Schramm was enough to put him only a tenth behind the polesitter, as Kami Laliberte settled for third.
Track limits continued to be a problem as Juan Manuel Correa‘s time was deleted, ensuring he finished the group in fourth. Meanwhile, a surprisingly poor end of the session for Zendeli saw him finish behind fifth placed Nicklas Neilsen.
This left Mawson on pole from Preining. A ten place penalty carried over from his crash in Oschersleben ensures that Mawson starts race one from eleventh. The first race will see Preining line up in front of Schramm and Vips, Schumacher is fifteenth for race one and will start last for race two.
