Brazilian driver Felipe Drugovich came out on top after a morning of testing for the ADAC Formula 4 Championship at the Lausitzring. Kim-Luis Schramm topped the first practice from Drugovich, but fell back as the times improved over lunch.
Schramm enters the weekend with a lot to prove. After a difficult weekend at Oschersleben, in which he scored just eight points, the ADAC F4 race winner will be determined to re-enter the championship battle after such a strong 2016.
His time of 1min 24.099 set the benchmark in the opening run, just 0.044 ahead of Drugovich who in turn was hampered by an incident in the opening race that held him back throughout the event, seeing him collect just 18 points.
The results could yet add more dimensions to the championship fight, that already has seen three different race winners from the first three races and the top six split by just 16 points.
The opening session saw a surprisingly quick time from Frederik Vesti, who was third overall, despite failing to score a point for all of the Oschersleben weekend. The US Racing trio of Julain Hanses, Fabio Scherer and Nicklas Nielsen rounded out the top six, with the top seven filled with US Racing and Van Amersfoort Racing teams.
Championship leader Juri Vips was eighth overall behind Kami Laliberte, proving how the established front-runners may not have it all their own way.
Times would drop significantly in the second Free Practice, with Drugovich recording a best time of 1min 22.955, 1.1 seconds quicker than Schramm in the morning encounter.
This time it would be Hanses and Scherer who would be his closest rivals, Hanses being just 0.085 behind, while Laliberte once again finished a position above Vips and Juan Manuel Correa. Behind them Schramm could only record seventh fastest, despite improving on his time, while Nielsen rounded out the top eight.
A tough Friday for Vips and Nielsen would play a major part in the championship battle, especially with their closest rivals, Jonathan Aberdein and Lirim Zendeli failing to even feature in the top nine overall.