Photo: John Cowpland /Toyota Gazoo Racing NZ
Toyota Racing Series champion Liam Lawson set the pace on the opening day of running at Highlands Motorsport Park ahead of the 2020 Toyota Racing Series.
Lawson’s benchmark time came in the first of two 20-minute sessions on Thursday morning, usually reserved for series newcomers but on this occasion providing the drivers with their first taste of the new FT-60 cars.
With the 20-car field split into two for those initial sessions, M2 Competition’s Lawson posted a 1m28.938s to top the first group.
Gregoire Saucy was second in that session and overall for Giles Motorsport, 0.34 seconds behind, with Igor Fraga third for M2, while Caio Collet topped the second group with the fourth best time of the morning.
Two further 40-minute sessions were run for all drivers later on, with Lirim Zendeli topping the first for Giles with a best lap of 1m30.100s, 0.127s in front of Fraga.
Lawson bettered that to lead the final session with a time of 1m29.441s, with Fraga again second best, 0.459s adrift.
MTEC Motorsport entry Collet ended the day fourth fastest ahead of Zendeli and Yuki Tsunoda, who just edged out a strong morning effort from Oliver Rasmussen to go sixth.
Spanish Formula 4 champion Franco Colapinto was eighth with TRS returnees Petr Ptacek and Jackson Walls completing the top 10.
Combined Thursday times
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liam Lawson | M2 Competition | 1m28.938s | |
| 2 | Gregoire Saucy | Giles Motorsport | 1m29.278s | +0.340s |
| 3 | Igor Fraga | M2 Competition | 1m29.659s | +0.711s |
| 4 | Caio Collet | MTEC Motorsport | 1m30.020s | +1.082s |
| 5 | Lirim Zendeli | Giles Motorsport | 1m30.100s | +1.162s |
| 6 | Yuki Tsunoda | M2 Competition | 1m30.110s | +1.262s |
| 7 | Oliver Rasmussen | MTEC Motorsport | 1m30.120s | +1.182s |
| 8 | Franco Colapinto | Kiwi Motorsport | 1m30.745s | +1.807s |
| 9 | Petr Ptacek | MTEC Motorsport | 1m30.790s | +1.852s |
| 10 | Jackson Walls | MTEC Motorsport | 1m30.850s | +1.912s |
| 11 | Igor Cohen | M2 Competition | 1m31.217s | +2.279s |
| 12 | Rui Andrade | M2 Competition | 1m31.467s | +2.529s |
| 13 | Emilien Denner | M2 Competition | 1m31.539s | +2.601s |
| 14 | Henning Enqvist | Giles Motorsport | 1m31.653s | +2.715s |
| 15 | Jose Blanco | Kiwi Motorsport | 1m31.815s | +2.877s |
| 16 | Spike Kohlbecker | Kiwi Motorsport | 1m32.265s | +3.327s |
| 17 | Amaury Cordeel | Kiwi Motorsport | 1m32.341s | +3.403s |
| 18 | Lucas Petersson | MTEC Motorsport | 1m32.655s | +3.717s |
| 19 | Axel Gnos | Kiwi Motorsport | 1m32.698s | +3.760s |
| 20 | Chelsea Herbert | Giles Motorsport | 1m35.053s | +6.115s |