The third round of the Toyota Racing Series at Taupo saw the first time during the year that all practice sessions were topped by different people. On Thursday, Lucas Auer and Nick Cassidy were unsurprisingly in charge, yet Friday saw the likes of Bruno Bonifacio, Andrew Tang and Alex Lynn record quickest times in given sessions.
Bonifacio enjoyed a great start of the day as a lap of one minute and 23.678 seconds made him untouchable in the first practice session, with the second best time (set by Cassidy) being almost four tenths slower. Lynn completed the top three with Auer and Pipo Derani another three tenths behind.
A top-notch performance by rookie Tang saw him run away with the quickest time in session two, as the usual suspects Lynn and Cassidy rounded up the top three. Nicholas Latifi had a strong showing in fourth, setting his personal best time early on in the session, while Steijn Schothorst showed his usual frontrunner pace with fifth.
However, the best time of the day was yet to come, set by Lynn in the third session – a lap of one minute and 23.522 seconds. Again, Cassidy was right behind, setting the same time that Bonifacio topped the first practice with, with Schothorst continuing an upward trend by setting the third time. Bonifacio himself was fourth after not setting a time in session two, while Felix Serralles got back on form by putting himself in fifth. The session saw a brief red-flag period in what was otherwise an incident-light day, reportedly due to Michael Scott spinning out but managing to recover and continue practice.
Combined Results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Session 1 | Session 2 | Session 3 | PB Pos |
| 1 | Alex Lynn | M2 Competition | 1m24.095s | 1m24.633s | 1m23.522s | 1 |
| 2 | Bruno Bonifacio | Giles Motorsport | 1m23.678s | No time | 1m23.932s | 1 |
| 3 | Nick Cassidy | M2 Competition | 1m24.019s | 1m24.667s | 1m23.678s | 2 |
| 4 | Steijn Schothorst | M2 Competition | 1m24.504s | 1m24.853s | 1m23.838s | 3 |
| 5 | Felix Serralles | Giles Motorsport | 1m25.429s | 1m25.015s | 1m23.966s | 5 |
| 6 | Damon Leitch | Victory Motor Racing | 1m24.609s | 1m25.025s | 1m23.980s | 6 |
| 7 | Jann Mardenborough | ETEC Motorsport | 1m24.872s | 1m25.526s | 1m24.084s | 7 |
| 8 | Lucas Auer | Giles Motorsport | 1m24.428s | 1m24.987s | 1m24.159s | 4 |
| 9 | Pipo Derani | Giles Motorsport | 1m24.462s | 1m25.025s | 1m24.201s | 5 |
| 10 | Tatiana Calderon | ETEC Motorsport | 1m24.932s | 1m25.528s | 1m24.219s | 9 |
| 11 | Andrew Tang | ETEC Motorsport | 1m25.012s | 1m24.516s | 1m25.860s | 1 |
| 12 | Nicholas Latifi | Giles Motorsport | 1m25.289s | 1m24.692s | 1m25.128s | 4 |
| 13 | Akash Nandy | ETEC Motorsport | 1m25.542s | 1m26.222s | 1m24.996s | 11 |
| 14 | Tanart Sathienthirakul | ETEC Motorsport | 1m25.177s | 1m25.082s | 1m25.668s | 10 |
| 15 | Spike Goddard | M2 Competition | 1m25.459s | 1m27.715s | 1m25.128s | 13 |
| 16 | Dennis Olsen | M2 Competition | 1m25.260s | 1m25.567s | 1m26.086s | 12 |
| 17 | Michael Scott | M2 Competition | 1m26.179s | 1m25.348s | 1m25.820s | 11 |
Times in bold denote quickest times of the day for given driver.
Times in italics denote quickest times in a given session