Photo: ADAC
PHM Racing’s Taylor Barnard claimed pole position for ADAC Formula 4’s first two races at the Lausitzring in Prema’s absence.
The Briton, who claimed his maiden pole last time out at the Nurburgring, was several tenths clear of nearest rival Kacper Sztuka in both sessions.
It was returning US Racing driver Sztuka who topped the charts in the first half of qualifying one. However, the Pole couldn’t match Barnard’s pace in the closing stages of the session and ended up 0.372 seconds behind.
Nikita Bedrin was third, just 0.058s off a front row position. He was followed in fourth by PHM team-mate Valentin Kluss. Jenzer Motorsport’s Rasmus rounded off the top five.
US Racing’s Zachary David concluded his first car racing qualifying session in sixth place. The Sauber karter spent most of the session within the top five, and was as high as third with less than five minutes remaining on the clock. However, he dropped back as the session approached its end.
Sztuka was again first to top the times in Q2 but then ended the session in second place, 0.265s off Barnard who set a laptime of 1m23.341s just over five minutes to the end of the session and would go on to lower it another two tenths in the next lap, which was enough to secure pole for race two.
Bedrin qualified in third like in Q1, followed this time by Joutsimies and David, who is under investigation for pitlane speeding during the session.
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Taylor Barnard PHM Racing 1m23.738s
2 Kacper Sztuka US Racing +0.372s
3 Nikita Bedrin PHM Racing +0.430s
4 Valentin Kluss PHM Racing +0.562s
5 Rasmus Joutsimies Jenzer Motorsport +0.765s
6 Zachary David US Racing +0.838s
7 Jonas Ried PHM Racing +0.988s
8 Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi Jenzer Motorsport +1.287s
9 Michael Sauter Sauter Engineering+Design +1.309s
10 Ruiqu Liu US Racing +1.397s
Race 2 grid
1 Barnard 1m23.341s
2 Sztuka +0.265s
3 Bedrin +0.577s
4 Joutsimies +0.761s
5 David +0.781s
6 Kluss +0.809s
7 Ried +0.927s
8 Liu +1.082s
9 Bhirombhakdi +1.133s
10 Sauter +1.607s