Christchurch’s Marcus Armstrong has become the first driver to lead both the German and Italian Formula 4 Championships.
The narrowest of margins separate team-mates Marcus Armstrong (NZ) and Juri Vips (Estonia) after the latest round of the German Formula 4 Championship on the 3.7 kilometre at Sachsenring circuit in Saxony, Germany.
With two podium finishes, 17-year old Armstrong is 1.5 points clear of his Prema team-mate, 212 – 210.5 in a field of 34 very fast race drivers. He led race one briefly until the race was red flagged after a three-car tangle, but was overtaken at the safety car controlled restart by eventual winner Julian Hanses. Late in the race Fabio Scherer made a risky pass to take second. In the next race Armstrong harried Scherer all the way to the finish – and at the same time banked enough points to take the championship lead. Sophia Flörsch was third. In the reverse grid race three, Armstrong started eighth and forged through to finish sixth.
“Overall, a good weekend in Sachsenring. I had a good feeling with the car on new tyres but not on used ones which is why our race pace was not overwhelming. However with two podiums and a sixth in the reverse grid race we took the lead in the championship by a very small margin, which will make the final round at Hockenheim very interesting!”
Third on 190.5 points is Brazil’s Felipe Drugovich.
Armstrong now leads the Italian and German Formula 4 championships.
The Prema team, meanwhile, secured the teams’ title over the weekend. The Italian squad, lining-up for the penultimate round of the German ADAC-promoted Formula 4 series, secured the teams’ championship with still one round and three races to spare with an extremely smart performance from their driver pairing.
“Massive congratulations to Prema for taking the teams’ championship for the second year running in ADAC F4. I’m proud to have been part of this success for them,” Armstrong said.
Christchurch born and raised, Marcus Armstrong is the first New Zealander to be inducted into the elite Ferrari Driver Academy.
The 2017 ADAC FIA Formula 4 Championship concludes at the 4.574 km Hockenheimring circuit in Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany, September 22-24.
