Pourchaire extends championship lead at Nürburgring

• US Racing CHRS driver wins two out of three races
• Rookie Roman Stanek finishes ahead in Race 3 on the Eifel circuit
• US Racing dominant on home weekend, with five podium finishes

Nürburgring: Championship front-runner Théo Pourchaire (15, France) and Roman Stanek (15, Czech Republic) of US Racing CHRS were the winners of Sunday's two ADAC Formula 4 races at the Nürburgring. Pourchaire notched up a second win on the historic track in the Eifel two days before his 16th birthday. Later in the day, Stanek celebrated his second victory of the season in Round 14 of the campaign.

Pourchaire spun on the final lap of the afternoon race and could only finish eleventh, but that was still enough for him to score an additional point towards his title challenge. The French teenager who drives for US Racing, the German outfit managed by Ralf Schumacher and Gerhard Unger, extended his lead in the overall standings. The gap to his team-mate Arthur Leclerc (18, Monaco), who is currently second in the table, was 29 points going into the weekend, but after races 12, 13 and 14, this has now grown to 53 points. Third in the drivers' championship and some way behind is Stanek on 129 points, a tally that nonetheless gives him a comfortable lead in the Best Rookie classification.

"I'm concentrating hard on every single race," said Pourchaire. "I always want to push and get the maximum. I'm not wasting any effort thinking about the title, because that's a long way from being decided. As we've seen, mistakes and unexpected things happen over and over again, so it's advisable to take each race as it comes."

"I am very happy about the victory," said Stanek. "Everything went according to plan. I've proven that I can win races, and I hope that I can get some more wins. It's a very good way to round off the weekend, and I'm now looking forward to Hockenheim and the Sachsenring."

Race 3, which was contested on Sunday afternoon, was delayed by about 20 minutes for safety reasons after a heavy rain shower and eventually started behind the safety car. Stanek stayed out ahead once the stewards gave the all-clear and set the pace. Meanwhile, Dennis Hauger (16, Norway, Van Amersfoort Racing) overtook rookie Joshua Dürksen (15, Paraguay, ADAC Berlin-Brandenburg e.V.) and Oliver Rasmussen (18, Denmark, Prema Powerteam) to move up to second place.

The safety car put in two further appearances during the further course of the race after Dürksen and Gianluca Petecof (16, Brazil, Prema Powerteam) had to park their stricken vehicles. But that didn't put Stanek off his stride as the young Czech calmly collected his second win of the season. Joining Stanek on the third and final podium of the Eifel weekend were Hauger and Rasmussen.

The 13th race of the season started on Sunday morning on a wet track and in temperatures of around 17°C. Hauger got off the line quickest and went ahead of pole-sitter Pourchaire on the first corner. But the championship leader had opted for the inside lane and immediately regained the place with a skilful manoeuvre. On the third lap, Hauger made an error, the beneficiaries of which were Alessandro Ghiretti (17, France, US Racing CHRS), Leclerc and Michael Belov (17, Russia, R-ace GP). They now began to hunt Pourchaire down.

The French teenager shrugged off the threat posed by the thrilling three-way battle for second place behind him and confidently wrapped up a lights-to-flag victory by a margin of six seconds. The wheel-to-wheel battle between Belov, Leclerc and Ghiretti eventually went the way of the Russian who made the first podium appearance of his career. Leclerc rounded off an all-round strong performance by the US Racing squad with third place. Hauger took the chequered flag behind Ghiretti and Rasmussen in fifth place.

For US Racing CHRS, the home weekend at the Nürburgring turned out to be a massive success, with three winners, a runner-up spot for Stanek on Saturday and a third place for Arthur Leclerc, the younger brother of Formula 1 star Charles Leclerc. The German racing team has further extended its lead in all three championships - drivers', Best Rookie and team.

The undergraduates of the ADAC High-Speed Academy now have four weeks to recharge their batteries after a gruelling six races in the last eight days at Zandvoort and the Nürburgring. The next three races of the 2019 campaign will be contested at the Hockenheimring on the weekend of 13th - 15th September.

Further comments on the ADAC Formula 4 races

Dennis Hauger (P2 in Race 3, Van Amersfoort Racing):
"We had a lot of bad luck this weekend. In the first race, I had problems with the car that slowed me down. It all worked out in the end, though, and I'm glad about that. But the gap to Théo Pourchaire is now quite big, and as the remaining races get fewer, the situation also gets tighter."

Oliver Rasmussen (P3, Prema Powerteam):
"It was really difficult in these conditions. I didn't have the best rapport with the car and had to work my way into the race. Thankfully, I managed quite well, and I'm ultimately more than satisfied with the result. I had been aiming to finish the weekend off in style, and fortunately, that's what I did."