Lawson takes TRS NZ Motor Cup with crushing display as Fraga hits trouble

Photo: Bruce Jenkins/TGRNZ

Reigning Toyota Racing Series champion Liam Lawson took the New Zealand Motor Cup by winning the feature race at Pukekohe, as M2 Competition wrapped up the teams? title.

Lawson battled hard with title rival Igor Fraga off the line but kept the lead. In the opening corners, Fraga was spun round by Gregoire Saucy, sending the erstwhile championship leader to the back.

There was a safety car shortly afterwards for debris from the MTEC Motorsport car of Lucas Petersson, which was missing a front wing.

As Saucy was subsequently given a drive-through penalty for his actions, he dropped back shortly after the restart.

But Lawson remained totally in a class of one through the 25-lap race, finishing comfortably ahead of the rest of the pack.

Kiwi Motorsport?s Franco Colapinto subsequently ran second but was unable to challenge Lawson, ending up 6.946s behind Lawson at the end. Giles Motorsport?s Lirim Zendeli rounded out the podium after a lengthy dice with Petr Ptacek.

Red Bull-backed Yuki Tsunoda put in a stellar recovery drive from 16th on the grid to fourth. In the opening laps before the safety car, he had climbed up to eighth, and put in some excellent manoeuvres to move up to just outside of the podium.

Ptacek ended up fifth, ahead of Ido Cohen and Caio Collet.

Fraga was only able to recover to eighth, ahead of Tijmen van der Helm (who achieved his best result to date) and race two winner Jackson Walls.

Saucy was penalised and finished 17th and last, with Emilien Denner again not taking the start due to a wrist injury.

Race results (25 laps)