A controversial final ADAC Formula 4 event saw Kim-Luis Schramm take victory after the race was briefly red flagged. Miscommunication and a number of incidents brought the race to a halt with drivers crashing behind the safety car.
After an extra formation lap, the reverse grid final race was eventually given the green flag. Pole sitter Schramm held on to the lead ahead of Leonard Hoogenboom, with the top two breaking away.
All eyes were on the cars behind as Mick Schumacher made an excellent getaway. He jumped up to fifth disposing of a number of his rivals.
Joey Mawson started directly behind him but was unable to make as clean a start, dropping two places to twelfth. Life went from bad to worse for the Australian, who collected Jannes Fittje on the second lap, breaking his suspension and knocking both out of the race.
With no safety car the leaders continued with Schramm breaking away at the front. Schumacher meanwhile attacked the Motopark cars in front eventually disposing of Jonathan Aberdein to go forth as a safety car was called.
On the lap before, Felipe Drugovich threw away another points finish as he spun on the gravel at the final corner beaching his car on the pit lane entrance. This closed the gap up destroying Schramm’s lead over Hoogenboom and Simo Laaksonen.
There was carnage as the safety car was planning to return to the pits. Oliver Söderström ran into the back of Sophia Floresch spinning. As a result the safety car continued to the surprise of the front-runners, who hadn’t seen anything.
The leaders came around the final corner to find the crawling safety car, with only some of the runners spotting it and slowing down in time.
Schumacher was in the middle of passing Laaksonen at the final turn before Mike Ortmann ran into the back of the Finn. In avoidance, Juan Manuel Correa took to the grass damaging his car. The rest of the field bunched up and a red flag was waved.
After a lengthy delay, the race was restarted under safety car with Schramm leading the pack. Behind was Hoogenboom, Schumacher, Aberdein and Correa as Mucke Motorsport’s Ortmann started from the pits.
The damage proved costly for Laaksonen, being forced to retire as the field was given 8 minutes to race. Schumacher was later given a drive through for passing under the safety car. It was a decision that brought back memories of his father’s last lap overtake at Monaco as the safety vehicle pulled into the pits.
Schramm was quick to break away, with the battle for fourth providing the most action into the first corner. After two laps of racing the safety car was called once again with Ricardo Feller stranded at turn two.
A medical team was deployed, as it turned out that Feller had landed harder than many had thought after launching off the kerb. As a result, the race was ended under neutral conditions.
Schramm won his first race of the year from Hoogenboom and Correa. Aberdein would be classed as fourth ahead of Thomas Preining, who’d been disqualified from race two and sixth place Richard Verschoor.
