Ruapuna TRS: Habsburg claims career-first win in opener

Habsburg, contesting his second season in the championship, took over the lead after starting on the front row and held on to the spot until the end of the 15-lap race, despite a mid-race safety car period.

While he had taken six previous podiums in his car racing career, the victory is Habsburg's first in single-seaters.

GP2 racer Artem Markelov was Habsburg's nearest rival by the end of the race, although it was Norris who posed the biggest threat.

The Briton challenged Habsburg after losing the lead early on and was right on his tail at the safety car restart, which followed after Kami Laliberte went off on Lap 3.

However, Norris would eventually slip behind M2 teammate Markelov, allowing Habsburg to coast to victory unimpeded.

Top-placed local driver James Munro was best of the rest, having challenged for a podium early on. He lost two spots after the restart and re-passed compatriot Brendon Leitch, but had to settle for fourth.

Leitch ended up falling to sixth behind Ferrari junior Guan Yu Zhou, while Pedro Piquet, Jehan Daruvala, Taylor Cockerton and Timothe Buret completed the top 10 – the latter having started 16th.

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time/Delay
1	Ferdinand Habsburg	Giles	20:48.146
2	Artem Markelov	M2	1.674
3	Lando Norris	M2	1.98
4	James Munro	Giles	5.342
5	Guan Yu Zhou	M2	6.723
6	Brendon Leitch	Victory	10.18
7	Pedro Piquet	M2	11.564
8	Jehan Daruvala	M2	13.092
9	Taylor Cockerton	ETEC	13.701
10	Timothe Buret	ETEC	17.742
11	Will Owen	Giles	18.186
12	Nicolas Dapero	Giles	18.882
13	Antoni Ptak	Giles	20.502
14	Devlin DeFrancesco	Giles	20.855
15	Julian Hanses	Victory	21.527
16	Theo Bean	ETEC	30.858
Ret	Bruno Baptista	Victory
Ret	Kami Laliberte	M2
Ret	Rodrigo Baptista	ETEC