ADAC Formel 4 

ADAC Formel 4·19.9.2020

Second win of season for Dürksen: Edgar extends overall lead - Al Qubaisi in the points

16-year-old German driver Joshua Dürksen clinched his second win of the season in the first ADAC Formula 4 race at the Hockenheimring. Driving for ADAC Berlin-Brandenburg eV, he took a lights-to-flag victory from pole position on the famous track in south-west Germany. This was his second success in a row after clinching his maiden win in the ADAC High-Speed Academy in Sunday's race at the Nürburgring before the summer break. Van Amersfoort's pairing of Jak Crawford (USA) and Jonny Edgar (Great Britain) completed the party on the podium at Hockenheim. Edgar was thus able to extend his lead in the overall standings of the ADAC Formula 4.

"I found it pretty exciting," said Dürksen. "I made a good start and then drove a focused race, which was the key to victory." He confidently defended his lead at the start from the Italian, Gabriele Mini (Prema Powerteam), while to their rear, the two Red Bull Juniors, Crawford and Edgar were both pushing hard and overtook Elias Seppänen (US Racing). Edgar and Crawford were able to keep up with the two drivers out in front initially, but Dürksen and Mini in the lead drew away from them after a couple of laps. A scrap then broke out which was decided with ten minutes to go to the end of the race. There was a contact as Mini tried to overtake Dürksen, which resulted in Prema's man, Mini, having to retire his car.

"I didn't expect the attack," said Dürksen. "He was some way off and the move was risky," he added, giving us his take on what happened. "I think it was a racing incident. Things like that happen in motorsport." As for Dürksen, his route to victory then seemed assured, but Crawford caught up with him over the final stages. "I had a few mechanical problems after the contact," said Dürksen. "I just wanted to survive the race." However, Crawford was unable to manoeuvre into a position from where he could attack and finished behind Dürksen with a 0.375 seconds deficit, taking second place from British driver Edgar, who is now on 124 points, 23 points ahead of Seppänen after his P4 finish. Dürksen (80) has improved his place in the standings and is now third level on points with Crawford.

Francesco Pizzi, Van Amersfoort Racing's third driver in the field, was fifth. ADAC Sports Foundation protégé, German teenager, Tim Tramnitz (US Racing), took P6 from Dino Beganovic and Vladislav Lomko. Mexico's Erick Zuniga finished ninth on his debut in the ADAC Formula 4 while Hamda Al Qubaisi also had good reason to be extremely pleased. She is the only female driver in the field and secured one point for tenth place in her first race in the German series.

This weekend's second race starts at 16.00 CET. Race 3 is next up on Sunday morning at 11.00 CET. SPORT1 are showing at least one race live on free-to-air television every weekend, and racing can also be watched on SPORT1+. All races are also available online as live stream with a choice of German or English commentary at SPORT1.de, youtube.com/adac and adac.de/motorsport.