Victory number one for Nikita Bedrin (ITA/PHM Racing): The 16-year-old beat Taylor Barnard (18/GBR/PHM Racing) in the ADAC Formula 4 wet race at the DEKRA Lausitzring.
The Berlin racing team PHM Racing celebrated a double victory at their home game on the 3.478 kilometer race track. Rasmus Joutsimies (19/FIN/Jenzer Motorsport) was delighted with his first podium and first place in the rookie classification.
“It feels great to win. My race went according to plan and the speed was incredible despite the rain. I got a really good start which was the key to success. It allowed me to focus on my pace and not have to stop take a lot of risks,” said Bedrin.
With a constantly wet track and rain, the spectators at the Family & Friends Festival experienced an entertaining race as part of the ADAC GT Masters. At temperatures of 20 degrees Celsius, Bedrin got off to the best start and turned into the first corner as the leader. The eventual race winner quickly gained an advantage over Barnard and was able to maintain this as the race progressed.
Barnard thus crossed the finish line in second place. “The track was very wet, so I didn’t get off that well at the start. These conditions were completely new to me. As the race progressed, I wanted to finish second safely and deliberately didn’t follow Nikita,” explained the two-time race winner .
Joutsimies made up two places at the start of the 13th race of the season and moved up from fifth to third place. The rookie defended this over the entire race distance in a thrilling three-way battle with Kacper Sztuka (16, POL/US Racing) and Michael Sauter (17, DEU/Sauter Engineering + Design). “I’m really happy about my first podium in ADAC Formula 4. The pressure from the two drivers behind me was extremely high. Nevertheless, I kept my cool in the crucial moments and I’m taking my first trophy home with me,” said Joutsimies.
Sztuka took fourth place. Sauter started ninth on the grid to catch up: the Swiss achieved his best result of the season so far with fifth place. Zachary David saw the checkered flag in sixth place. This weekend, the 15-year-old will be the first driver from the Philippines to start in the ADAC junior series for US Racing, the racing team of Ralf Schumacher and Gerhard Ungar.
Ried in seventh place as the best German
Jonas Ried (17, DEU, PHM Racing) was the best German in seventh place. Samir Ben (19, SUI/Jenzer Motorsport), Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi (16, THA/Jenzer Motorsport) and Ruiqi Liu (16, US Racing) completed the top ten. The Chinese made his ADAC Formula 4 debut in Niederlausitz.
Double racing action awaits the up-and-coming stars of tomorrow on Sunday. Barnard starts the race at 10:05 from pole position. Due to the reverse grid rule, the top eight start the 15th round of the season at 3:35 p.m. in reverse order. All races will be streamed live free of charge on sport.de and adac.de/motorsport.