Joey Mawson collected his fourth win of the season as he overtook pole sitter; Thomas Preining with three minutes remaining. The win allows him to extend his championship lead to 13 points after the first race around Oschersleben this weekend.
The opening ADAC Formula 4 got off to a typically dramatic start as a crash towards the back of the grid red flagged the first race.
Pole sitter Preining had made a good start, but it was championship leader Mawson who jumped Mick Schumacher off the line to take second before the first corner. Behind them, the field tried to organise themselves with Kami Laliberte being squeezed to the inside and collecting two cars before crashing into Michael Waldherr.
Also caught up had been championship contender; Jannes Fittje, as well as Moritz Muller-Crepon and Nicklas Neilsen, with a red flag was called soon after. The race was eventually restarted under safety car after the cars lined up in grid order once again.
The shortened race saw Preining lead as Mawson once again applied the pressure to Schumacher. After a lap of fighting the Australian finally made it up the inside into the first turn, breaking away by almost a second over the German.
Behind, all the cars made it through the first corner safely as Felipe Drugovich proved to be the quickest of the runners moving up to fifth and leaving Simo Laaksonen behind, as the Finn was unable to keep pace.
Despite their strong qualifying, Lirim Zendeli and Juri Vips were forced to pit as South African driver Jonathan Aberdein found himself moving backwards after qualifying a respectable sixth.
With Juan Manuel Correa moving up the order, six different nationalities filled the top six places. The top three broke away from Drugovich was who struggling in the latter stages.
Preining found himself under pressure as the race entered its halfway point, with Mawson all over the back. Schumacher meanwhile, kept in tow, only a second behind. Mawson seemed to have superior grip during the middle sector but was initially unable to make the move.
Only a few minutes before the conclusion, Mawson dived around the outside of turn four to take the lead denying the Austrian a maiden victory. Despite this, Preining maintained second holding off Schumacher.
The battle for fourth turned out to be the story of the final lap as Drugovich held off Correa. The American was unable to maintain his pace as Mike Ortmann attacked him before settling for sixth. Behind them, Laaksonen and Jonathan Aberdein rounded out the top eight.
