Joshua Dürksen narrowly misses the podium twice in the ADAC Formula 4 at the Lausitzring
• At the rainy Lausitzring two fourth places are the highlight of BWT Mücke Motorsport - Joshua Dürksen is 0.014 seconds behind in third place on Sunday
• Roland Rehfeld (Team Manager): "Joshua Dürksen showed me the overtaking manoeuvre of the weekend. In the first race he literally left his opponent standing in the ninth turn".
Joshua Dürksen contested the sixth stop in the ADAC Formula 4 at the Lausitzring last weekend with BWT Mücke Motorsport. The season opener already took place on the Brandenburg circuit, but on a different track layout. This time, the 4.570-kilometer long version was used.
The weather conditions demanded a high level of driving skills from the participants. In almost all sessions, the drivers had to prove themselves on wet surfaces. Joshua showed on Friday that he was well prepared for the difficult track conditions. After seventh place in the first free practice session Dürksen used the experience gained to improve to fourth place in the second free practice session. His highlight was the second position in the qualification for the first race.
At the first race on Saturday Joshua did not get an ideal start. On the way to the first corner he had to give way to two competitors. The 17-year-old then showed himself determined to make up for the lost positions, which was no easy task. In order to overtake his opponents, he had to leave the drying ideal line again and again. Nevertheless, Dürksen took the lead already in the third lap. For a long time he was the sovereign leader of the field, before he made a small mistake in the last third of the race, which threw him back to fourth position.
In the second race of the weekend, Dürksen started from seventh position and again convinced with a strong start. On a predominantly dry track he improved to fifth position in the first two laps. Then a collision between two cars in front forced him to stop briefly, which cost him valuable time. Joshua dropped back to tenth place, but impressed with a sensational catch-up race, which brought him up to fourth position. In the finish sprint he had to admit defeat by only 0.014 seconds against the third placed rider.
The final race at the Lausitzring took place on Sunday afternoon. This time, Joshua made a good start, as he had done several times this year, improving to third position. In pouring rain he got off the track and fell back to the end of the field. He was not discouraged by the setback and fought his way forward to seventh place.
Already next weekend (06.-08.11.2020) the final of the ADAC Formula 4 will take place in the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben.
Roland Rehfeld (Teammanager):"It was three crazy races. Joshua Dürksen showed me the overtaking maneuver of the weekend. In the first race he literally left his opponent standing in the ninth turn. With the move on the outside lane he took the lead. However, Joshua lost two good results due to his slip-ups. In this weather it is enough to get a few centimeters off the line to slide into the gravel. But that happens to many riders at this level. Almost the entire field has made mistakes".
Photos © BWT Mücke | GruppeC
