Home Formula RegionalFRegional Oceania Tijmen van der Helm ends free practice for New Zealand GP on top

Tijmen van der Helm ends free practice for New Zealand GP on top

by Ida Wood

Photo: Toyota Racing NZ

Dutch teenager Tijmen van der Helm was fastest again in Toyota Racing Series free practice at Manfeild.

The Kiwi Motorsport driver topped FP1, and also set the pace in the third and final session of the day by 0.020 seconds from MTEC Motorsport by R-ace GP’s Petr Ptacek.

It wasn’t all easy for the rookie, who had a high-speed off through the circuit’s gravel traps but managed to continue.

Gregoire Saucy was the quickest of the title contenders for Giles Motorsport in third, just ahead of rivals Franco Colapinto (Kiwi) and Caio Collet (MTEC). Renault junior Collet was the fastest man in FP2, beating van der Helm and Giles’ Lirim Zendeli.

Sixth placed Oliver Rasmussen had 0.079s between himself and the next five drivers, which consisted of title-battling M2 Competition trio Liam Lawson, Yuki Tsunoda and Igor Fraga, and Rasmussen’s own MTEC team-mates Jackson Walls and Lucas Petersson.

Several drivers had offs at the final corner, and found themselves at the bottom of the timesheets, although it was Giles’ 78-year-old Kenny Smith who ended up in last place.

 

Free practice results
Pos Name Team Time
1 Tijmen van der Helm Kiwi Motorsport 1m03.499s
2 Petr Ptacek MTEC by R-ace GP +0.020s
3 Gregoire Saucy Giles Motorsport +0.119s
4 Franco Colapinto Kiwi Motorsport +0.153s
5 Caio Collet MTEC by R-ace GP +0.157s
6 Oliver Rasmussen MTEC by R-ace GP +0.243s
7 Liam Lawson M2 Competition +0.267s
8 Yuki Tsunoda M2 Competition +0.294s
9 Jackson Walls MTEC by R-ace GP +0.295s
10 Igor Fraga M2 Competition +0.309s
11 Lucas Petersson MTEC by R-ace GP +0.322s
12 Spike Kohlbecker Kiwi Motorsport +0.348s
13 Lirim Zendeli Giles Motorsport +0.361s
14 Axel Gnos Kiwi Motorsport +0.595s
15 Henning Enqvist Giles Motorsport +0.639s
16 Rui Andrade M2 Competition +0.905s
17 Ido Cohen M2 Competition +0.952s
18 Emilien Denner M2 Competition +0.969s
19 Kenny Smith Giles Motorsport +1.436s