A dominant display from Mick Schumacher saw him take victory at his home venue. He’d started on pole from the Nurburgring, holding off early pressure from rival Joey Mawson to close in on him in the ADAC Formula 4 Championship.
Schumacher had made a strong start, breaking away from Mike Ortmann off the line. Joey Mawson meanwhile, went around the outside of the Mucke Motorsport driver to take second.
The field cleanly made it round the first lap, but it wasn’t long before we saw our first incident. After coming together with others, Felipe Drugovich and Lirim Zendeli came into the pits with damage. Back at the front, Mawson clearly had more speed on the straights.
He kept close to Schumacher early on as the top three broke away. Mawson made a dive in the third lap but it came to nothing. It became clear Schumacher wasn’t going to get his own way as he failed to break away.
Behind them, Juri Vips lead a rookie quartet with Nicklas Neilsen a second back. Despite a promising qualifying, Red Bull Junior driver Richard Verschoor fell back at the start and for the majority of the race lay seventh behind Juan Manuel Correa.
With 14 minutes to go, the battle for eighth started lighting up the crowd as Thomas Preining did his best to hold off the advancing Simo Laaksonen and Jannes Fittje.
Further back, a crash between Toni Wolf and Oliver Soderstrom saw both cars retreat to the pits. Soderstrom had attempted the pass into the final chicane, but was unsighted by Wolf. The Swedish driver broke his front wing and pitted immediately. As for Wolf, he continued a lap with his engine cover exposed before being waved in.
After braking away and setting the fastest lap, Schumacher took victory by 2.6 seconds over Mawson and Ortmann. The win ensures he closes the gap to his rival in the championship as he stands on the top step for the fourth time this season.
Behind the podium finishers, Neilsen was once again the top rookie in fourth from Vips who he overtook in the closing laps. Correa completed the rookie podium as Verschoor was unable to improve from seventh. This allowed Preining, Laaksonen and Fittje to round out the top ten.
