Lawson close to lap record as TRS practice begins
New Zealander Liam Lawson got his title defence off to the perfect start in the Castrol Toyota Racing series as he emerged quickest from the first day of testing at Highlands Motorsport Park, Cromwell.
Lawson hustled his brand new Toyota FT60 racer around in 1 minute 28.938 seconds to eclipse Grégoire Saucy for Giles Motorsport and M2 Competition teammate Igor Fraga for the day's fastest time. Despite that being only his first run in the car, he was less than a tenth of a second of his own outright lap record, set last year at the corresponding event.
A hot day of testing saw the full grid of 20 cars get their first run around the picturesque South Island circuit. Caio Collet finished the day with the fourth best time for mtec Motorsport, with Lirim Zendeli fifth. Red Bull Junior Yuki Tsunoda was sixth fastest at the end of the day, with Oliver Rasmussen in seventh, Franco Colapinto in eighth and returning racers Petr Ptacek and Jackson Walls rounding out the top ten.
Friday track time will include a 20 minute morning session and two half hour sessions in the afternoon ahead of the first qualifying session on Saturday morning. Sixteen nations are represented in the 20 car field.
Combined Thursday Practice Results
1 Liam Lawson
2 Grégoire Saucy
3 Igor Fraga
4 Caio Collet
5 Lirim Zendeli
6 Yuki Tsunoda
7 Oliver Rasmussen
8 Franco Colapinto
9 Petr Ptacek
10 Jackson Walls
11 Ido Cohen
12 Rui Andrade
13 Emilien Denner
14 Henning Enqvist
15 Jose Blanco
16 Spike Kohlbecker
17 Amaury Cordeel
18 Lucas Petersson
19 Axel Gnos
20 Chelsea Herbert
