Joel Eriksson wins his second race of the weekend at Oschersleben to further help his championship chances, as rival Marvin Dienst pushed him all the way to the flag, only losing out by 0.2 seconds to the Swede. The result means that Eriksson is now only 20 points behind.
The ADAC Formula 4 field had to deal with tricky conditions as rain the night before meant that the track was not in optimum conditions. This was most notable after the race saw three safety cars, all appearing near the start of the event.
It was Janneau Esmeijer who was once again the man on pole. Although he started from the front, a poor get away saw him and David Beckmann fall backwards through the field as Eriksson quickly shot into the lead.
Many drivers found turn one tricky to negotiate on cold tyres, meaning the top four broke away with the others limping round. Eriksson managed to take an early lead and built a gap over Dienst, but this would be eradicated over time as the safety cars appeared.
The two behind were Mick Schumacher, who’d started sixth and Michael Waldherr. Unfortunately for Waldherr, a potential podium was lost after he spun during the third safety car. This gave Schumacher some breathing room for the middle part of the race.
It didn’t last though. Esmeijer had fallen out of the top ten at the start but soon worked his way into fourth having overtaken Tim Zimmermann, but his bad luck continued as he beached his car in the wall with five minutes remaining.
He made a brave move on Schumacher for third, but ran straight on and promoted the field. Behind the eventual top four of Eriksson, Dienst, Schumacher and Zimmermann the battle for fifth saw a number of winners in the final laps.
Beckmann was fifth, while Mike Ortmann crossed the line sixth having made the most of the crash between Jonathan Cecotto and Benjamin Bailly in the final laps. Ortmann had been running outside of the top ten for a large part of the race and would be pleased with his result.
Toni Wolf came home in seventh for a personal best finish ahead of Jannes Fittje, Bailly and Marek Bockmann who was the biggest loser having been demoted from sixth.
