Championship leader Jonny Edgar made a clear statement of intent in the two ADAC Formula 4 qualifying sessions at the Red Bull Ring, asserting his title ambitions in impressive fashion. The British 16-year-old, who drives for Van Amersfoort Racing team, won the Pirelli Pole Position Award in both sessions and will therefore be starting the first two races of the weekend from the very front of the grid. For the Red Bull Junior, it was pole positions number three and four of the campaign. Edgar is now poised to take another decisive step towards the championship on the historic circuit near Spielberg in Austria. The first race gets underway on Saturday at 11:40 CEST, with the two other races following on Sunday (09:55 and 16:05 CEST). Free-to-air TV channel SPORT1 will be showing all of the ADAC Formula 4 races. They can also be watched online on adac.de/motorsport, the ADAC Formula 4 Facebook page, SPORT1.de and YouTube.com/ADAC.

In the first of the two sessions, Edgar was in a league of his own, completely dominating the proceedings. In slightly damp conditions, the 16-year-old from England had a lead of a full second over the rest of the field at one point. Edgar’s fastest time at the end of the session was 1:39.405 minutes, with session runner-up Victor Bernier from France 0.755 seconds behind. The R-ace GP youngster booked himself a place on the front row of the grid, just as he had done on the previous race weekend at the Nürburgring. Behind them on the second row are ADAC Sports Foundation sports protégé Tim Tramnitz and his US Racing team mate Elias Seppänen. After a mediocre showing in the free practice sessions, the habitual team champions of the last few years have returned to form at just the right time.

Joshua Dürksen and Jak Crawford, who had excelled in free practice, qualified fifth and sixth. Van Amersfoort driver Crawford is 30 points behind Edgar in the overall standings and best placed among the pursuing bunch to catch his team-mate. The outcome of the quali therefore puts him under pressure if he is to assert his title pretensions. Vladislav Lomko and season debutant Roee Meyuhas from Israel will start the first race from the fourth row. Kirill Smal and Oliver Bearman round off the Top Ten.

In the second half of the qualifying session, in which the starting grid for Race 2 was to be decided, the track continued to dry out, which was also reflected in the lap times. Once again, Edgar was the fastest in the field, but on this occasion by a much tighter margin. Edgar’s best time of 1:37.457 minutes was 0.063 seconds faster than that of runner-up Seppänen. Crawford qualified third ahead of Bearman, both of whom significantly improved on their result from Q1. Starting from the third row of the grid will be Josef Knopp and Tramnitz. Lining up behind them on row four are Dürksen and Smal, with Lomko and Bernier and in ninth and tenth place respectively.