Danish star, Nicklas Nielsen goes into Sunday with a race win and the championship lead of the ADAC Formula 4 series. The US Racing driver win the second race at Oschersleben after a red flag made the first lap irrelevant.
It was another dramatic start for the ADAC F4 field as the top three almost wiped each other out going into the first corner. Polesitter Nielsen had made a poor start with Juri Vips and Felipe Drugovich flanking him into the first corner.
Vips, on the inside did not make the apex, running all three to the edge and allowing Kami Laliberte to inherit the lead from Drugovich. The race though was subsequently red flagged as Michael Waldherr had his suspension broken, leaving him stranded on the track.
As the action got back underway, Nielsen, who had the lead handed back to him, broke away with Drugovich struggling to hold off the other US Racing car of Fabio Scherer.
The Dane could not build too much of a gap though, eventually coming back under pressure from Drugovich, Scherer and Vips who had caught the group. The quartet would eventually break away from the field, dominating the racing action.
Elsewhere on the grid, Cedric Piro continued a miserable weekend by pulling off with technical issues as Lirim Zendeli ran teammate Oliver Soderstrom into the gravel at turn one.
Drugovich continued to feign a move into turn one, but ultimately couldn’t fool Nielsen who held on to win his first race of the year. Benefitting from the red flag, the 2016 rookie champion has responded impressively to Vips’ race one domination.
Joining them on the podium was Scherer who had been hounding Drugovich in the closing lap as Vips settled for fourth ahead of teammate Juan Manuel Correa, who suffered a quiet encounter.
Behind them, the third and final Prema Powerteam car of Marcus Armstrong held off Kami Laliberte with three teams locking out the top seven. The points were rounded out by Jonathan Aberdein, Zendeli and top rookie David Malukas.
