US Racing dominate qualifying at Lausitzring

• All four US Racing drivers finish up front in the quali
• Schramm and Hanses start from pole Position
• Qualifying results from the Lausitzring now provisional after US Racing lodge an appeal

Klettwitz – Strong performance in qualifying by US Racing. Kim-Luis Schramm (Germany) secured pole position for the fourth ADAC Formula 4 race of the season and Julian Hanses (19, Germany) took the top spot for Race 5 at the Lausitzring. In bright sunshine and soaring temperatures, 19-year-old Schramm posted best time of 1:22.462 minutes to secure P1 in the first race at the Lausitzring Motorsport Festival. His team-mates, Nicklas Nielsen (20, Denmark), Fabio Scherer (17, Switzerland) and Hanses were right behind him. It was a close-run thing in qualifying. Just 0.304 seconds covered the top ten drivers in the end. The first of this weekend’s three races for the drivers of the ADAC’s high-speed school will be held on Saturday at 11.30 am and can be seen live on SPORT1 and SPORT1+ as well as via livestreams at www.SPORT1.de and www.adac.de/motorsport.

Pole-sitter Schramm told us: “Our car was perfect, otherwise, all four of us would not have finished so far up front, and we all did a good job and achieved a great result for the team.” Team Principal Gerhard Ungar was also “very satisfied” after the success of his drivers in qualifying. “Strategy was excellent. Everything went just perfect, actually, but the race is something else. The other teams are hard on our heels.”

Prema Powerteam initially dominated qualifying with drivers Juan Manuel Correa (17, USA/Ecuador), Juri Vips (16, Estonia) and Marcus Armstrong (16, New Zealand) until US Racing began to flex their muscles to take the lead with all four drivers. Armstrong briefly broke through the army of US Racing drivers with Schramm at its head but finally had to settle for sixth place behind Kami Laliberté (17, Canada, Van Amersfoort Racing). They were followed home by Correa, Felipe Drugovich (16, Brazil, Van Amersfoort Racing), Frederik Vesti (15, Sweden, Van Amersfoort Racing) and Jonathan Aberdein (19, South Africa, Motopark).

Estonian driver Juri Vips, who heads the overall standings, placed twelfth. The 16-year-old on 47 points leads the rankings from Nielsen (45) and Aberdein (34). Austrian Mick Wishofer (17, Lechner Racing) in P18 was the best-placed rookie.

The order on the grid for the second race on Saturday (5:40 pm) is decided by the second-best times achieved by all the drivers in qualifying. Hanses posted a 1:22.537 to secure his maiden pole position in the ADAC Formula 4. Team-mates Scherer and Nielsen will start right behind him on Saturday, followed by Armstrong, Schramm, Drugovich, Laliberté, Correa, Aberdein and Cédric Piro (19, Germany, Team Piro Interdental).

“I’m very pleased,” said Hanses with delight at having secured his first pole position. But he intends to approach the race in a very relaxed manner: “I have no real tactics. I’ll defend the first turn to begin with, and then we’ll see how things develop.”

Following the qualifying session for this weekend’s ADAC Formula 4 races at the Lausitzring Motorsport Festival, the scrutineers identified an irregularity in the number 13, 18, 27 and 28 vehicles fielded by US Racing. On all four cars, a regulation camber shim had not been fitted to the front right wheel suspension. Cars 13, 18, 27 and 28 were retrospectively excluded from qualifying. US Racing lodged an appeal against this decision. The appeal has a delaying effect. All four drivers are therefore allowed to take up the starting positions gained in qualifying for races four and five of the season. The results of the fourth, fifth and sixth rounds of the 2017 ADAC Formula 4 at the Lausitzring remain provisional until the German Motor Sports Federation (DMSB) has made a final ruling on the appeal.

The third race on Sunday at 4.55 pm, in which the top ten drivers from the first race will line up in reverse order, will round off the race weekend at Lausitzring. All races will be broadcast on SPORT1 and SPORT1+ and will also be available as live streams at www.SPORT1.de and www.adac-motorsport.de.