Prema Powersport‘s Ralf Aron managed to master the wet 3.6km Nurburgring track to take his first win of the season and rescue his championship hopes, while many of his rivals struggled in a safety car packed ADAC Formula 4 race.
Tim Zimmermann started on pole in the wet conditions thanks to a reverse grid from race one. However; after the track was considered too dangerous for the field to launch from, ADAC F4 went through its first safety car start in the series’ young history.
Having gone green, the track was later plunged into another safety car period when Marylin Niederhauser spun at the final turn, beaching herself on the kurb and needing to be recovered before the action could get back underway.
Having started in fourth, Aron hadn’t made a good getaway and was off the pace when the first safety car came out. However; he put his skills to good use on the drying track. He was quickly up to third in the second half of the race and eventually caught leader Zimmermann and Joel Eriksson, passing them with ease.
He would win by over 3 seconds from his nearest challenger; Lando Norris, who could have caught Aron had the race have gone on longer. He was joined by championship leader, Marvin Dienst on the podium.
Eriksson had made the most of the restart as he challenged for victory, but his championship fight took another hit having been taken by Dienst, his HTP Junior Team mate Janneau Esmeijer and the series’ consistent driver, Robert Shwartzman on the final lap.
The saving grace for Eriksson was that he wasn’t the only championship contender having a bad race. Joey Mawson had been in third at the initial start, but fell back as the race went on eventually finishing in seventh having held off David Beckmann, who enjoys his best weekend to date.
The top ten was rounded out by the front row drivers. Zimmermann was unfortunate to not finish higher, while Mick Schumacher ended a torrid race with a solitary point. Schumacher had not been able to cope with the rain and lost ground to Zimmermann at the start falling to fourth by the time the safety car came out. He would continue to tumble backwards in a race weekend that could have gone so well.
