Home Formula RegionalFRegional Oceania Liam Lawson leads Toyota Racing Series FP3 at Highlands

Liam Lawson leads Toyota Racing Series FP3 at Highlands

by Ida Wood

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
Pos Name Team Time
1 Liam Lawson M2 Competition 1m28.616s
2 Caio Collet MTEC by R-ace GP +0.262s
3 Lirim Zendeli Giles Motorsport +0.434s
4 Igor Fraga M2 Competition +0.454s
5 Yuki Tsunoda M2 Competition +0.858s
6 Jackson Walls MTEC by R-ace GP +0.876s
7 Gregoire Saucy Giles Motorsport +0.935s
8 Franco Colapinto Kiwi Motorsport +1.001s
9 Petr Ptacek MTEC by R-ace GP +1.009s
10 Amaury Cordeel Kiwi Motorsport +1.486s
11 Emilien Denner M2 Competition +1.597s
12 Jose Blanco-Chock Kiwi Motorsport +2.007s
13 Henning Enqvist Giles Motorsport +2.029s
14 Spike Kohlbecker Kiwi Motorsport +2.122s
15 Rui Andrade M2 Competition +2.237s
16 Lucas Petersson MTEC by R-ace GP +2.370s
17 Axel Gnos Kiwi Motorsport +3.398s
18 Chelsea Herbert Giles Motorsport +6.145s
19 Ido Cohen M2 Competition no time
20 Oliver Ramussen MTEC by R-ace GP no time