Manfeild TRS: Daruvala triumphs, Randle crowned as champion
Force India's Jehan Daruvala became this year's New Zealand Grand Prix winner as Thomas Randle recovered from losing his points lead in Race 2 to claim the 2017 Toyota Racing Series title.
Thomas Randle
The title rival trio of Pedro Piquet, Randle and Richard Verschoor, separated by just two points in the standings, started the 35-lap race second, third and fifth respectively.
Piquet kept his position behind pole-sitter Daruvala but Randle lost a spot to Ferrari junior Marcus Armstrong.
However, the race was almost immediately red-flagged due to Luis Leeds colliding with Christian Hahn and Piquet dropped behind both Armstrong and Randle at the restart.
That made Randle the highest-ranked title contender, the Aussie running just ahead of Piquet and Verschoor.
Out in front, Daruvala quickly built a safe lead and at halfway point his advantage was nearly two seconds over Armstrong, who was closely followed by Randle.
While Armstrong made up ground as the late stages of the race approached, he never managed to get close enough to make a move, allowing the Indian to win.
Although Armstrong could not shake off Randle, the Australian did not risk an overtake and it was the Kiwi driver finishing runner-up.
Out of the title contender trio, Verschoor quickly lost ground, dropping a couple of seconds behind Piquet and never managing to put pressure on the Brazilian.
Piquet managed to keep up with Randle in the first half of the race but then also started to fall behind.
He picked up the pace late in the race, running less than a second to Randle but it was the latter crossing the line in third and thus taking the title.
Brendon Leitch passed Enaam Ahmed for sixth only to fall down the order with just a couple of laps to go.
It was Ahmed taking sixth as a result, with Ferdinand Habsburg overtaking Keyvan Andres to finish seventh. Australian Harry Hayek and local driver Taylor Cockerton rounded out the top 10.
In winning the 2017 edition of the TRS, Randle became the first Australian become champion in the off-season series - and the fourth non-Kiwi driver to do so alongside Lance Stroll, Lando Norris and Andrew Tang.
Race 3 results:
Pos |
Driver |
Gap |
---|---|---|
1 |
Jehan Daruvala |
- |
2 |
Marcus Armstrong |
0.855s |
3 |
Thomas Randle |
1.213s |
4 |
Pedro Piquet |
2.304s |
5 |
Richard Verschoor |
8.142s |
6 |
Enaam Ahmed |
16.641s |
7 |
Ferdinand Habsburg |
20.531s |
8 |
Keyvan Andres |
23.483s |
9 |
Harry Hayek |
23.987s |
10 |
Taylor Cockerton |
24.846s |
11 |
Ameya Vaidyanathan |
25.600s |
12 |
Shelby Blackstock |
25.982s |
13 |
Kami Laliberte |
27.439s |
14 |
Thomas Neubauer |
28.758s |
15 |
Kory Enders |
29.449s |
16 |
Nikita Lastochkin |
38.638s |
17 |
Jean Baptiste Simmer |
54.619s |
18 |
Brendon Leitch |
+3 laps |
R |
Luis Leeds |
- |
R |
Christian Hahn |
- |
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