Second win of season for US Racing driver Julian Hanses

• Hanses also on pole for Race 2 – Ghattas is Best Rookie
• Armstrong reduces deficit on Vips – gap now down to 6.5 points
• Artem Petrov to start Race 3 from pole

Hohenstein-Ernstthal: Julian Hanses (20, Germany, US Racing) confirmed his strong performance in free practice and qualifying by securing a second win of the 2017 ADAC Formula 4. The 20-year-old beat off competition from team-mate Fabio Scherer (18, Switzerland) and championship contender Marcus Armstrong (17, New Zealand, Prema Powerteam). As a result of Armstrong’s podium, the title fight in the ADAC Formula 4 has just got that bit tighter. The New Zealander, who is currently second in the standings, has reduced the deficit on Juri Vips (17, Estonia, Prema Powerteam) to 6.5 points – the championship leader crossed the finish line in fifth position. Doureid Ghattas (15, Germany, Team Piro Sports Interdental) was Best Rookie in P17.

Hanses, who will again be on pole in the second race on Sunday (live on SPORT1+ at 9.20am) was jubilant following his win: “That was terrific, an absolutely stupendous race. I did not get away at all well at the start, but then luck was on my side at the restart. Our speed was good today. I was a good deal stronger than the guys behind me and was able to pull away from them really well. It all went as planned.”

The Top Three were followed home by Nicklas Nielsen (20, Denmark, US Racing), rounding off a strong result for US Racing. Championship leader Juri Vips finished in fifth place, maintaining his lead over Marcus Armstrong in the overall standings by a narrow margin – he has 192. 6 points to Armstrong’s 186. Felipe Drugovich (17, Brazil, Van Amersfoort Racing), who finished seventh in the first race, is next in third place on 165.5 points.

Sophia Flörsch (16, Germany, ADAC Berlin-Brandenburg e.V.) took P6 ahead of Drugovich, Frederik Vesti (15, Denmark, Van Amersfoort Racing), Kim-Luis Schramm (21, Germany, US Racing) and Artem Petrov (17, Russia, Van Amersfoort Racing). Petrov will be in pole position for the third race on Sunday after coming tenth, as the Top Ten line up in reverse order.

Hanses did not get off the line well at the start of this first of three races at the Sachsenring, allowing Armstrong to slip past on the run up to the first corner. The race was stopped under the red flag after a contact between Oliver Söderström (19, Sweden, ADAC Berlin-Brandenburg e.V.), Laurin Heinrich (15, Germany, Team Laurin Heinrich) and Charles Weerts (16, Belgium, Motopark) at the rear of the field. The restart took place behind the safety car, and Hanses was not about to be caught out a second time as he quickly pulled away and left Armstrong behind him, trying to fend off Scherer’s attack.

Sophia Flörsch and Felipe Drugovich were also battling it out a little further back while Juri Vips worked his way up through the field in fine style. The scrap between his rivals was another factor in enabling Hanses to gradually extend his lead. Fabio Scherer from Switzerland ultimately won the thrilling battle for second place with a magnificent overtaking manoeuvre on Marcus Armstrong in the final turn.

Scherer, Flörsch, Schramm, Drugovich, Nielsen, Vesti, Vips and Louis Gachot (18, GB, Van Amersfoort Racing) will line up behind Hanses and Armstrong in the second race on Sunday morning. SPORT1 and SPORT1+ will broadcast live coverage from all races taking place during this penultimate meeting of the season. Live streams will also be available at www.adac.de/motorsport, www.sport1.de and www.youtube.com/adac.

Further comments on the ADAC Formula 4 race

Julian Hanses (winner, US Racing): “I’ll visit my coach in the run-up to the season finale at the Hockenheimring. I’m going make extremely thorough preparations for Hockenheim and will go on the attack there again. It’s nice to be going straight from one race weekend to the next. When you have two or three weeks’ break, you can switch off and start again. But if there is only one week in between, that means ‘full pull’ and ‘flat out’. It will be my objective to improve on my performance a bit.”

Fabio Scherer (second, US Racing): “That was a good move towards the end. The pace was excellent from start to finish. I could have driven much faster. The most difficult thing was keeping up without loss of downforce on this beautiful fast track, but I managed to do that well. And then I actually planned where I could best overtake Marcus. One lap before the end, I realised that it could work well. I’ve had some unlucky races, so the championship is more or less out of reach for me. That’s why I’m driving for race victories and trying to take a little more risk. My aim is to continue in this way. It’s super that we’ll be back in action next weekend. It would be nice if that were always the case. I would like to be racing all the time. That’s the thing I like doing best.”

Marcus Armstrong (third, Prema Powerteam): “I’m not at all satisfied. On the last lap, Scherer was determined to force his way past at all cost, and that was a ruthless move. I could have won today and taken the lead in the general classification. That did not go according to plan at all.”