Avoiding the action behind him on the opening lap at the Nurburgring, 17-year-old Lirim Zendeli led from start to finish to record his second win of the ADAC Formula 4 season. The race would be noted for a separate first lap accident that saw Nicklas Nielsen upside-down and a red flag called.
With Zendeli on pole, pressure would be on those behind as the field looked to start the weekend, and the second half of the season, on the front foot. It would not be a good time for Felipe Drugovich though, with the Brazilian spun around by Jonathan Aberdein in the opening complex.
Aberdein was forced to head back to the pits, though both drivers would be forced to restart from the back as a red flag was called after Nielsen was flipped upside down further back.
The Dane needed to be extracted and delayed the race by some minutes, with Kami Laliberte also out as result.
Zendeli would restart the field once again behind the safety car chased by Kim-Luis Schramm. The two initially broke away with Andreas Estner holding up the challengers behind.
Attention soon switched the the midfield battle behind as Aberdein served a drive through for his lap one crash only to later retire.
With the time ticking down, Fabio Scherer had made it past Estner and was pressuring Schramm for second, though the more experienced German held on for his third podium of the season. None of them could stop Zendeli though who impressed with another win.
Estner would hold on to fourth with Juri Vips surprising many by not challenging past fifth place, arguably helped by a poor race for his rivals. Behind that, a strong recovery from the Van Amersfoort Racing saw Louis Gachot and Frederik Vesti bring home useful points.
Rounding out the top ten was Enzo Fittipaldi, on his first weekend in the ADAC series from Julian Hanses and Marcus Armstrong who struggled to make progress at the start. Armstrong though will have pole for race three tomorrow.
