ADAC Formula 4: first top ten finish for Maya Weug in Spielberg

In the third round of her first season in single-seaters, Maya Weug finished in the top ten for the first time, classified ninth in the third race. The result came at Spielberg, which was hosting the first round of the German ADAC championship and apart from the regular competitors, about half the field from the Italian series also took part. Maya did very well all weekend, making up places in every race, after a less than brilliant qualifying. The Ferrari Driver Academy’s first girl is clearly making progress and it is to be hoped she can now fight for points in every race.

Race-1. This got underway at 11.10 on Saturday and Maya stayed 20th for the opening lap, but pushed hard on the second to get past Hamda Al Qubaisi and Francesco Braschi, although she then lost a place to the UAE woman driver who did a better job of getting ahead of Marcus Amand. On the penultimate lap, Weug gained a couple of places after Al Qubaisi and Valentino Catalano crashed going off the track at turn 3. Maya thus finished fifteenth, second rookie after Nikita Bedrin and best female driver.

Race-2. This started late on Saturday afternoon as the previous GT race had overrun. Maya did not get the best of starts, but quickly moved back to 18th, her grid position, and then battled for 15th with France’s Sami Meguetounif. At first the battle seemed to go Weug’s way, but then she made a small mistake and lost the place, thus finishing 16th, again second rookie behind Bedrin and best female driver.

Race-3. The final race saw action right from the off, as Sebastian Montoya and Victor Bernier jumped the start off the front row, picking up a 5 second penalty. Almost immediately the Safety Car was needed and at the restart, three cars collided at turn 3. Maya made the most of it to get up to 13th place, staying out of trouble even giving best to a hard-charging Catalano. In the chaotic final stages Maya made up two more places, starting the last lap in 11th spot. Then, Tim Tramnitz, who had lost his rear wing in a collision with Francesco Braschi, went off the track which meant the Iron Dames by Iron Lynx driver found herself promoted to the top ten. After the race, Braschi was penalised for the incident with Tramnitz and so Maya was classified ninth, ending the weekend in fine style.