After starting on pole, young German star Mick Schumacher broke away from the pack to win the first race of the ADAC Formula 4 weekend and close the gap to championship rival Joey Mawson. The race itself was marred by a pile up in the first corner in which ten cars were forced to retire.
Schumacher made a typically good start to maintain the lead into the first corner at the Lausitzring, while second place Kami Laliberte was fortunate to maintain his ground as the German quickly stretched his advantage. While the drivers had made it through the first corner safely, disaster would befall the field halfway through the lap.
As the driver headed along the back straight, Kim-Luis Schramm, who was still in the midfield after his poor qualifying, found himself pitted sideways. Sophia Floresch, the driver he’d tapped, was sent into the back of rookie leader Nicklas Nielsen.
Nielsen found him spun backwards as he quickly dropped down the order. Behind, the cars were almost six wide going into the hairpin and with minimal room for manoeuvre they found themselves caught up in the drama, with a number of cars beached in the gravel. Floresch and Schramm continued, but Nielsen, qualifying race winner Job van Uitert, Luca Engstler, Simo Laaksonen and another five drivers were forced to call time on their race.
The field was reset, as the cars that could make the start, were given their qualifying spot back. Unsurprisingly, Schumacher made the most of the restart, once again getting the jump on his rivals and quickly building a gap. He eventually took the chequered flag by 2.1 seconds over Laliberte, who was unable to fight back.
Joining Schumacher and Laliberte on the podium was Austrian Thomas Preining, who’d managed to get the jump on Jannes Fittje at both starts, and quickly pulled out a small gap. The lack of pace will be a shock for Fittje, who was expecting to take the fight to Schumacher.
Coming into the weekend Felipe Drugovich had only scored four points, but an excellent defensive display from the Brazilian saw him hold off Joey Mawson and collect fifth, more than doubling his current score. Mawson on the other hand will be disappointed to have collected his worse result of the season, his first time off the podium.