Controversy and Confusion at Taupo

Jehan Daruvala from India was a controversial winner of the preliminary race in the Toyota Racing Series at Taupo this morning with Invercargill’s Brendon Leitch the main loser. Leitch led from the start of the reverse grid event and steadily pulled away from China’s Guanyu Zhou who had been given the place after Daruvala had run wide in one corner.

On lap seven Rodrigo Baptista spun, stopping on the track unable to restart his car, bringing out the safety car.

On the restart, Leitch was swamped with Daruvala and Zhou diving inside him and English teenager Lando Norris going around the outside so they went into the first corner four wide. “The flag man put out the green flag for the restart,” said Leitch, “But he didn’t wave it.”

While Leitch hesitated the others did not. “I couldn’t see the flag,” said Norris. “I went on the call on the radio.” (from his race engineer on the pit wall). “It was a bit confusing.”

Daruvala on the inside dived into the first corner and took the lead from Norris with Zhou third and Leitch in fourth place. Pedro Piquet from Brazil and Christchurch’s James Munro completed the top six.

The race finished under a red flag as two of the back markers tangled in the final corners. Nobody was injured in any of the incidents, although the mechanics had some work to do before this afternoon’s race for the Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy.

 

Race 2

1^st – No. 6, Jehan Daruvala*, IND, M2 Competition, 13 laps, 19:55.989

2^nd – No. 31, Lando Norris*, GBR, M2 Competition, gap 1.358

3^rd – No. 33, Guan Yu Zhou*, CHN, M2 Competition, gap 1.835

4^th – No. 86, Brendon Leitch, NZL, Victory Motor Racing, gap 4.232

5^th – No. 5, Pedro Piquet, BRA, M2 Competition, gap 5.033

6^th – No. 40, James Munro, NZL, Giles Motorsport, gap 6.685

7^th – No. 10, Artem Markelov, RUS, M2 Competition, gap 6.989

8^th – No. 25, Bruno Baptista*, BRA, Victory Motor Racing, gap 9.204

9^th – No. 11, Taylor Cockerton*, NZL, ETEC Motorsport, gap 9.552

10^th – No. 23, William Owen*, USA, Giles Motorsport, gap 10.018

11^th – No. 17, Devlin DeFrancesco, CAN, Giles Motorsport, gap 13.430

12^th – No. 62, Ferdinand Habsburg, AUT, Giles Motorsport, gap 37.401^^

13^th – No. 4, Theo Bean*, USA, ETEC Motorsport, gap 45.277^^

 

Not Classified

No. 15, Kami Laliberté, CAN, M2 Competition, lap 12

No. 18, Julian Hanses*, GER, Victory Motor Racing, lap 12^^

No. 67, Antoni Ptak*, POL, Giles Motorsport, lap 12^^

No. 26, Timothé Buret*, FRA, ETEC Motorsport, lap 12^^

No. 21, Nicolas Dapero, ARG, Giles Motorsport, lap 10

No. 13, Rodrigo Baptista, BRA, ETEC Motorsport, lap 7

 

Fastest Lap

No. 6, Jehan Daruvala*, IND, M2 Competition, lap 2, 1:23.357, 129.914 mph

 

^^ Cars 62, 4, 18, 26, 67 – 30 seconds time penalty – breach of driving standards

• Rookie