Liam Lawson dominates opening TRS race at Taupo

Photo: John Cowpland / alphapix

Liam Lawson dominated the opening Toyota Racing Series race at Taupo to close the gap to Marcus Armstrong in the championship standings.

Lawson had built a lead of almost 4.5 seconds in the second half of the race, but was put back under pressure when Parker Locke span and brought out the safety car.

When the race turned green with three laps remaining, Lawson controlled the restart perfectly and was able to pull 1.740s clear of second-placed Lucas Auer before the chequered flag.

Armstrong, who started second behind Lawson, made the better start of the pair and had his nose ahead as they approached the first corner, but Lawson recovered to put Armstrong firmly behind him at Turn 1.

The championship leader fell back to third after Auer made a move up the inside to take second, and was soon under pressure from Artem Petrov.

Armstrong put up a good defence and, though Petrov stayed on his tail throughout the race, didn?t put a foot wrong to come home third.

Petrov finished fourth ahead of the battling Raoul Hyman and Cameron Das.

Jackson Walls spent much of the race leading a six car train in P7. Brendon Leitch was on his tail, but Das, Calan Williams, and Locke were all close behind.

Leitch pushed hard to try to find a way past, which only helped Das and allowed the American to pull alongside. The pair made contact and Leitch was sent spinning and dropped down the order. Das was able to continue in what was then eighth and passed Walls just before the safety car was brought out.

Walls finished seventh, ahead of Esteban Muth and Williams.

After a strong start, Kazuto Kotaka had been running sixth when the race was neutralised to clear Parker?s stranded car. But damage to the MTEC Motorsport driver?s front wing left him off the pace in the closing laps and he struggled to defend his position, dropping back to 10th?before the chequered flag.

Race results (20 laps)