Thomas Preining was unbeatable today at Red Bull Ring. The Lechner driver took a lights to flag victory ahead of Vips and Schramm. Mawson and Schumacher showed their skills after a great comeback from both championship contenders.
Today’s race was expected to be great with championship leaders Joey Mawson (Van Amersfoort Racing) and Mick Schumacher (Prema Powerteam) staring from the middle of the field.
At the start, the pole sitter Thomas Preining (Lechner Racing) maintained the position ahead of Juri Vips (Prema Powerteam) and Kim Luis Schramm (US Racing) who tried to overtake the Estonian. Behind them Juan Manuel Correa (Prema Powerteam) lost the front wing after a contact while, Andreas Estner (Liqui Moly Team Engstler) spun off.
The championship contenders made a good start. Mawson comeback to seventh place as Schumacher took eleventh place. Mike Ortmann comeback to fifth after start eight and quickly overtook Laliberte (Van Amersfoort Racing) for fourth place.
Laliberte continued loosing positions, when he went off at turn 7, which let Mawson overtake him after overtake Niklas Nielsen (Neuhauser Racing) before. Schumacher did the same on Lirim Zendeli (ADAC Berlin-Brandenburg e.v.) for tenth position.
It was a clean race until the crash between Fabio Scherer (Jenzer Motorsport) and Jonathan Aberdein (Motopark). Scherer tried to overtook the British driver in the outside line at turn 1. But Aberdein made contact with the Swiss driver and crashed into the wall after overturn.
At the restart the chaos returned in the series and the safety car had to return as well. Jannes Fittje (US Racing) was very late on the brakes at turn 2 and crashed with Lirim Zendeli, while Laliberte continued doing a lot of mistakes with an outing at turn 3.
The green flag returned in the track for the final five minutes. Mawson battle for fourth position with Ortmann who was passed by the VAR driver. Behind them Schumacher was doing the same and managed to finish sixth.
At the end, Thomas Preining took a dominant victory in front of Juri Vips (rookie) and Kim Luis Schramm. Joey Mawson comeback from eleventh to fourth ahead of Nielsen and Schumacher who started on fifth-teen place. Ortmann, Dugovich, Waldher and Laaksonen completes the top10.
In the championship standings, Mawson is leading with 24 points of gap with Schumacher, Schramm is third 74 points behind as Ortmann is fourth with 85 points less.
Results Race 1: 1 Preining 2 Vips 3 Schramm 4 Mawson 5 Schumacher 7 Ortmann 8 Drugovich 9 Waldherr 10 Laaksonen 11 Hoogenboom 12 Fernandez 13 Ciantini 14 Wolf 15 Engstler 16 Flörsch 17 Brandt 18 Söderström 19 Gachot 20 Müller-Crepon 21 Piro 22 Kratz 23 Hanses 24 Estner 25 Meikup 26 Aberdein 27 Zendeli 28 Laliberte 29 Halder 30 Esmeijer 31 van Uitert 32 Schreiner 34 Scherer 35 Correa