Photo: ADAC F4
Joshua Duerksen pipped Victor Bernier to first place in ADAC Formula 4 free practice at Hockenheim after topping both sessions.
The Paraguayan was narrowly faster than Prema driver Gabriele Mini in FP1 at the start of the day, and practice sessions for other series meant the track was grippier for when the F4 cars returned to track in the afternoon.
Laptimes improved by almost a second, with Mucke Motorsport’s Duerksen this time heading R-ace GP’s Bernier at the top of the timesheet.
The gaps had opened up behind them, with Sebastian Montoya rising up to third place to be the top Prema driver, but almost a third of a second off Duerksen’s pace.
US Racing also looked stronger in the grippier conditions, with its drivers Tim Tramnitz, Vlad Lomko, Ollie Bearman and Elias Seppanen moving up to fourth, sixth, seventh and eighth place respectively.
Separating them was Van Amersfoort Racing’s Jak Crawford, whose team-mate and fellow Red Bull junior Jonny Edgar ended up at the bottom of a tightly packed top 12. Mini meanwhile sank to ninth, but little over a tenth of a second slower than team-mate Montoya.
The technical relationship between the Abu Dhabi Racing, Iron Lynx and Prema teams was on full show, as Hamda Al Qubaisi drove an Iron Lynx-run entry rather than her usual Abu Dhabi-branded car. She was 14th fastest, only 0.022s slower than team-mate Leonardo Fornaroli.
Free Practice results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joshua Duerksen | Mucke Motorsport | 1m41.124s | 25 | |
| 2 | Victor Bernier | R-ace GP | 1m41.140s | +0.016s | 23 |
| 3 | Sebastian Montoya | Prema | 1m41.438s | +0.314s | 25 |
| 4 | Tim Tramnitz | US Racing | 1m41.527s | +0.403s | 21 |
| 5 | Jak Crawford | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m41.534s | +0.410s | 24 |
| 6 | Vlad Lomko | US Racing | 1m41.550s | +0.426s | 20 |
| 7 | Ollie Bearman | US Racing | 1m41.575s | +0.451s | 20 |
| 8 | Elias Seppanen | US Racing | 1m41.580s | +0.456s | 20 |
| 9 | Gabriele Mini | Prema | 1m41.581s | +0.457s | 23 |
| 10 | Dino Beganovic | Prema | 1m41.657s | +0.533s | 23 |
| 11 | Francesco Pizzi | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m41.685s | +0.561s | 22 |
| 12 | Jonny Edgar | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m41.686s | +0.562s | 25 |
| 13 | Leonardo Fornaroli | Iron Lynx | 1m42.000s | +0.876s | 25 |
| 14 | Hamda Al Qubaisi | Iron Lynx | 1m42.022s | +0.898s | 25 |
| 15 | Kirill Smal | R-ace GP | 1m42.086s | +0.962s | 20 |
| 16 | Josef Knopp | Mucke Motorsport | 1m42.215s | +1.091s | 22 |
| 17 | Erick Zuniga | Mucke Motorsport | 1m42.241s | +1.117s | 22 |