Norris extends Toyota Racing Series lead

Lando Norris has extended his lead in the Toyota Racing Series after winning this afternoon’s preliminary race at Hampton Downs from Jehan Daruvala and Pedro Piquet.

“I just wanted to control the race,” said 16 year old Norris after taking a flag to flag victory – an unusual occurrence with the dropping of the national flag after the starting lights system had failed earlier in the meeting. “My start was pretty good. Then I just wanted to be consistent and get more points.” It was Norris’ third win in three weekends and cements his position as the outstanding talent of the Toyota Racing Series.

With his closest rival, Artem Markelov slipping from fourth place to 12th over the last three laps with an off song engine, Norris now has an 81 points lead over Markelov in the championship. Norris may not have things quite so easy in tomorrow’s (Sunday) NZ Motor Cup race, as he will be starting from second on the grid, after Piquet grabbed pole position in qualifying earlier in the day for that race.

“We may change one or two things on the car,” said Norris, “Depending on track conditions.”

Daruvala tried to pressure Norris at the start. “I was quite close for the first two laps but I couldn’t do anything,” he said. Then it was just a case of keeping the gap to a following Piquet, who dropped away slightly in the second half of the race.

Top local drivers, James Munro and Brendon Leitch finished fourth and fifth, benefitting from Markelov’s late race problems. They had already made good starts, with Leitch picking up three places on the first lap to grab sixth and then fend off the attention of Guanyu Zhou, who had not got away well from third on the grid.

With his second place, Daruvala has jumped from sixth to third in the points, equal with Leitch, while Ferdinand Habsburg who was third has slipped to fifth place, just one point behind them.

 

Race 1 – Results

1^st – No. 31, Lando Norris*, GBR, M2 Competition, 15 laps, 15:22.954

2^nd – No. 6, Jehan Daruvala*, IND, M2 Competition, gap 1.533

3^rd – No. 5, Pedro Piquet, BRA, M2 Competition, gap 4.964

4^th – No. 40, James Munro, NZL, Giles Motorsport, gap 8.350

5^th – No. 86, Brendon Leitch, NZL, Victory Motor Racing, gap 8.691

6^th – No. 62, Ferdinand Habsburg, AUT, Giles Motorsport, gap 12.750

7^th – No. 33, Guan Yu Zhou*, CHN, M2 Competition, gap 13.876

8^th – No. 67, Antoni Ptak*, POL, Giles Motorsport, gap 16.288

9^th – No. 25, Bruno Baptista*, BRA, Victory Motor Racing, gap 20.878

10^th – No. 11, Taylor Cockerton*, NZL, ETEC Motorsport, gap 20.912

11^th – No. 17, Devlin DeFrancesco, CAN, Giles Motorsport, gap 21.215

12^th – No. 10, Artem Markelov, RUS, M2 Competition, gap 21.802

13^th – No. 26, Timothe Buret*, FRA, ETEC Motorsport, gap 22.544

14^th – No. 18, Julian Hanses*, GER, Victory Motor Racing, gap 23.448

15^th – No. 13, Rodrigo Baptista, BRA, ETEC Motorsport, gap 24.632

16^th – No. 23, William Owen*, USA, Giles Motorsport, gap 25.875

17^th – No. 15, Kami Laliberté, CAN, M2 Competition, gap 27.430

18^th – No. 4, Theo Bean*, USA, ETEC Motorsport, gap 47.551

19^th – No. 21, Nicolas Dapero, ARG, Giles Motorsport, gap 3 laps

 

Fastest Lap

No. 6, Jehan Daruvala*, IND, M2 Competition, lap 14, 1:00.580. 152.705 mph

 

• Rookie

Points

1st, Lando Norris, 455 points

2nd, Aretm Markelov, 374 points

3rd, Brendon Leitch/Jehan Daruvala, 349 points

5th, Ferdinand Habsburg, 348 points

6th, Pedro Piquet/Guan Yu Zhou, 331