ADAC Formel 4: 8th victory and championship title for Dienst
Marvin Dienst (HTP Junior Team) became the champion in the maiden season of ADAC F4 Championship by winning the first race of the weekend at Hockenheimring. With two races remaining and 5o points in the game Dienst is now 55 points ahead of Joel Eriksson (Motopark), who finished 17th at Hockenheim.
The decisive moment happened at the half point of the race, when Eriksson was leading David Beckmann (Mücke Motorsport) and Marvin Dienst. Beckmann attacked the leader but Eriksson was too agressive defending his lead and he pushed the rival, so shortly after that he received a drive-through penalty. He dropped to the end of the field and Dienst took the lead.
Dienst started from pole and remained in the lead with a great getaway. Eriksson had a good start and jumped over Janneau Esmeijer (HTP Junior Team) and Lando Norris (Mücke Motorsport) to grab the second. In Lap 1 Esmeijer had a spin and caused the crash of several drivers who tried to avoid him. That caused the intervention of the Safety Car. After the restart in Lap 4, Eriksson took the lead from Dienst.
In the following laps, we saw great battles between top 5 drivers, including Eriksson, Dienst, Beckmann, Norris and Mick Schumacher (Van Amersfoort Racing). After Eriksson was penalized, Mick Schumacher also dropped down the order because of technical issues. After two pit stops he finally retired in Lap 12.
Dienst remained in the lead until the checkered flag. Behind him, Mücke Motorsport’s duo Beckmann and Norris were fighting against Tim Zimmerman (Neuhauser Racing). After 17 exciting laps Beckmann and Norris completed the podium, Tim Zimmermann was fourth. Mike Ortmann (Mücke Motorsport) grabbed fifth place, to stay in the fight for Rookie title, with 20 points behind Beckmann. Toni Wolf scored his best result of the season in sixth. Harrison Newey (Van Amersfoort Racing), Michael Waldherr (Motopark), Marek Böckmann (Jenzer Motorsport) and Joey Mawson (Van Amersfoort Racing) rounded top 10.
Photos: adac-motorsport.de
