Liam Lawson leads Toyota Racing Series FP3 at Highlands

Photo: John Cowpland / Toyota Gazoo Racing NZ

Liam Lawson was comfortably quickest in the third Toyota Racing Series free practice session at Highlands Motorsport Park, which finished a minute early due to a red flag.

M2 Competition’s Rui Andrade and Kiwi Motorsport’s Franco Colapinto were first to top the times before reigning champion Lawson, who was quickly relegated by M2 team-mate Igor Fraga by almost half a second.

Rather than pitting, Lawson continued to circulate at a slow pace, and remained in second place until Caio Collet beat his time with nine minutes of the half-hour session to go.

MTEC Motorsport by R-ace GP had kept its cars in the pits far longer than its rivals, with Collet and his team-mates arriving onto the circuit late and immediately lighting up the timing screens.

Lawson responded on his next lap to reclaim second place, then improved once again to clear Fraga for first place.

He remained at the top for the final few minutes, with Giles Motorsport’s Lirim Zendeli and Collet swiftly bettering Fraga.

Collet made a further improvement to end the session in second place, 0.262 seconds slower than Lawson, with FP2 pacesetter Zendeli settling for third.

Some distance behind fourth placed Fraga was M2 team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, who leapt up the order in the final minutes.

This demoted MTEC’s impressive Jackson Walls to sixth, with Gregoire Saucy (Giles), Colapinto and Petr Ptacek (MTEC) closely matched behind.

Once again, local racer and single-seater debutant Chelsea Herbert only managed a few laps with Giles, while M2’s Ido Cohen and MTEC’s Oliver Rasmussen failed to record a registered lap.

Free practice results