Photo: Toyota Racing NZ
Thomas Randle has taken the lead of the Toyota Racing Series away from Richard Verschoor after beating the Red Bull Junior to victory in the opening race of round two at Teretonga.
Australia’s Randle beat Dutch rookie Verschoor to pole position by four hundredths of a second, and retained the lead at the start of the race.
The lead pair traded fastest laps over the first six tours, but Randle was able to maintain an advantage of around one second until the flag, with victory putting him into a five-point lead in the standings.
Teretonga local Brendon Leitch – who came out on top of an ultra-close fight for race three pole – completed the podium, and got to within half a second Verschoor by the end.
Pedro Piquet claimed fourth in front of Ferdinand Habsburg, Enaam Ahmed and Jehan Daruvala, who kept Taylor Cockerton at bay in an early scrap.
Brazilian F3 graduate Christian Hahn was an impressive ninth, with Harry Hayek 10th despite a crash that red-flagged the first qualifying session inside the final two minutes and ruled him out of the second session.
After winning his debut race last week, new Ferrari Driver Academy recruit Marcus Armstrong has been having a quieter event so far in round two.
The Kiwi came seventh in both qualifying sessions, but lost out at the start of the race and finished up in 12th place.