Australian Joey Mawson added another race win to his resume during Round Six of the ADAC German Formula 4 Championship at the Nürburgring on the weekend.
After finishing second behind Championship rival Mick Schumacher in race one, the PODIUM-backed driver got the jump off the start line in race two before being pressured by Schumacher in the opening laps.
The pair made contact when Schumacher made an ambitious move for the lead which forced Mawson wide. The German was given a drive-through penalty for his part in the contact leaving Mawson to hold a comfortable lead over Juri Vips on his way to his seventh victory of the year.
In the final 30-minute encounter Mawson moved up from his ninth starting position (reverse top ten from race one finish) to be sixth by the end of the opening lap. He then showed good speed to be battling for a place inside the top five but with the championship using the shorter version of the circuit passing opportunities were limited.
After crossing the line fifth, Mawson was given a post-race penalty for using the pit lane entry while making a pass for fifth place relegating him to 28th.
“Overall we can be satisfied with results from the weekend, I came away with a pole position and two podiums – including a race win,” said Mawson.
“It is disappointing not to have been able to finish on a high due to the penalty in race three but there’s not much I can do about that. I was making a pass on (Richard) Verschoor and he changed direction forcing me onto the pit lane entry.
“The stewards decided that it was an illegal overtaking manoeuvre on my behalf and because it was so late in the race I was given a time penalty of 30 seconds rather than a drive-through penalty.
“In the end, Championship wise I scored the same amount of points as Mick so I left the weekend with the same points lead as what I started with. So that is a real positive.”
With two rounds remaining, Mawson heads the standings on 297 points with Schumacher second on 251. Mike-David Ortmann is a further 71 points further back in third place.
The penultimate event in the eight-round Championship will be held at the Zandvoort circuit on August 19-21.