After the season opener of the FIA Historic Formula 2 Championship in Hockenheim, the fifth event with the Nürburgring should again have a venue on German soil. For Wolfgang Kaufmann, Eifel tested by numerous races in the "Green Hell", the home game par excellence. Although the two Formula 2 sprint races took place exclusively on the modern Grand Prix circuit and not on the beloved Nordschleife, that shouldn't detract from the driving pleasure.
 
But at the beginning of the race weekend there was only a brief shock to digest. During the tests scheduled for Thursday, the 2-litre BMW engine in the March Formula 2 no longer sounded as powerful as usual. A quick check revealed a hairline crack on an exhaust manifold. Thanks to quick help in the vicinity of the Nürburgring, the problem could be solved and in the official qualifying session, Kaufmann showed the rest of the field who was the boss at the Nürburgring. With a time of 1:43.717 minutes, the "Piranha" secured pole position for the first race, 0.7 seconds ahead of Mathew Watts.
In the first race on Saturday, the Briton was also the biggest opponent. "I didn't really get away at the start and that's why Watts stayed very close," said Kaufmann. Nevertheless, the Westwood racerprevailed at the start, but had to fend off a hard-fighting competitor in an almost identical car in the following laps. In front of a large crowd of spectators, the March pilots dueled over the entire distance and even went over the line for an extra lap just before the time was up. Despite being under constant pressure, Kaufmann stayed cool and brought home the first win of the weekend and the fastest race lap at the same time.
 
On Sunday, Watts used his 20 years of experience in Formula 2 and got off to an extremely fast start that put him in the lead just ahead of Wolfgang Kaufmann. The Brit couldn't be happy about first place for a long time, because at the beginning of the second lap Kaufmann went wide when braking for the first corner and passed him. Unlike the day before, Wolfgang Kaufmann was even able to pull away a little more at times and ultimately controlled the race from the front. After 13 laps and a little more than 25 minutes of driving time, the Westwood racer was able to win the second run and was happy about the classic wreath and the trophy.
 
"From the qualifying I had an absolutely problem-free weekend," said Kaufmann happily after the last award ceremony. "The scenery was really nice, especially on Saturday with the many spectators and the fights with a very fast, absolutely fair Matthew Watts were great fun."
 
The last stop of the FIA Historic Formula 2 Championship will be Dijon, France, in October.