Home Formula RegionalFRegional Oceania Untouchable Auer takes victory in race one at Timaru

Untouchable Auer takes victory in race one at Timaru

by Valentin Khorounzhiy

Lucas Auer was once again the man to beat in the first race of the Toyota Racing Series round at Timaru, as he recorded a dominant lights-to-flag victory.

Auer started from pole and immediately began pulling away from the other front row starter, Nick Cassidy, culminating in a four second gap between the two by the end of the race. In third, Bruno Bonifacio kept the pressure on Cassidy for most of the race, finishing only half-a-second behind the reigning champion.

Steijn Schothorst passed local Damon Leitch for fourth, while Felix Serralles maintained sixth for the entire race. The top ten was completed by Alex Lynn, Pipo Derani, Nicholas Latifi and Jann Mardenborough.

Tanart Sathienthirakul held off Tatiana Calderon for 11th, while Andrew Tang repeated his personal best finish of 13th. Spike Goddard and Dennis Olsen completed the top 15 ahead of Michael Scott and Ryan Cullen.

After the race, Goddard, Olsen, Scott and Cullen would all get an additional place as Tang was penalized for a false start, with ten seconds added to his time.

The only major incident of the race took place on lap one, when Akash Nandy went off-track and damaged his car. Nandy managed to remain in the race but had to visit the pits and spent the remainder of the race a lap down from the leader.

The top six finishers will start in reverse order for the second race (as, once again, decided by random selection), which puts Serralles and Leitch on the front row for race two.

Race one results
Pos Driver Team Time/Gap Laps
1 Lucas Auer Giles Motorsport 14m39.699s 15
2 Nick Cassidy M2 Competition +4.051s 15
3 Bruno Bonifacio Giles Motorsport +4.574s 15
4 Steijn Schothorst M2 Competition +6.445s 15
5 Damon Leitch Victory Motor Racing +8.835s 15
6 Felix Serralles Giles Motorsport +9.604s 15
7 Alex Lynn M2 Competition +12.809s 15
8 Pipo Derani Giles Motorsport +13.328s 15
9 Nicholas Latifi Giles Motorsport +14.013s 15
10 Jann Mardenborough ETEC Motorsport +14.483s 15
11 Tanart Satienthirakul ETEC Motorsport +19.100s 15
12 Tatiana Calderon ETEC Motorsport +19.837s 15
13 Spike Goddard M2 Competition +23.451s 15
14 Dennis Olsen M2 Competition +26.557s 15
15 Michael Scott Victory Motor Racing +26.715s 15
16 Ryan Cullen M2 Competition +28.672s 15
17 Andrew Tang ETEC Motorsport +31.700s* 15
18 Akash Nandy ETEC Motorsport +1 lap 14

* indicates a post-race time penalty