TRS 2017 - Round 03 - Hampton Downs, Auckland
Already the turning point of the season as we reach the mid season and despite leading the Team Championship, M2 Competition drivers are only in the position of hunters as the Driver Championship is lead by Richard Verschoor from Giles Motorsport. The determination from all the 6 drivers is high and they are willing to close the gap to the leader in this 2.6km up&down Track close to Auckland.
Finalising their knowledge of the track and optimising the setup of their car during the 5 Free Practices, the M2 Drivers are ready to fight for the pole positions during the 2 Qualifying on Saturday Morning. Once again, on this track, every thousands will count and no mistakes are allowed if you want to chase the pole position. Despite putting twice 5 drivers in the top 8, none of the M2 Drivers was able to beat the Australian, Thomas Randle, for the pole position.
In Q1, it was Jehan Daruvala (P2) who let the pole escape for 0,165 sec in front of Marcus Armstrong (P3), Pedro Piquet (P5), Ferdinand Habsburg (P6) and Kami Laliberté (P8).
In Q2, the gap was even smaller but Jehan (P2) stayed 0,069 sec of the poleman. Pedro (P3), Marcus (P5), Ferdinand (P6) and Kami (P7) were again in the top 8. Kami could have been even higher (up to P4) if the red flag didn't come up while he was only 100m away from closing his best lap [which didn't count at the end].
At the end of qualifying, the pace was definitively there and the hope were high to close the gap to the leader who only qualified P7 and P4.
Race 1 was under way under a bright sun and a hot track : 53° ! Great race from the M2 drivers who were able to sign the 2nd 1-2 of the season, Marcus Armstrong winning, for the second time of the season, in front of his team mate Pedro Piquet. Kami Laliberté who had a contact in the early stage of the race which damaged his rear suspension was able to keep his position and took the chequered flag in a solid P7. The race was more hectic for Jehan (P14) who spunned in Turn 1 at the start and Ferdinand (P9) who had to come back to the pits to change his front wing when he went off at a slippery corner 2 and was able to make the charge from last to P9, showing his abilities to overtake in various occasions. Jean Baptiste made a fanstastic first lap moving from P20 to P8 but went backwards during the race, ending up in P17.
Some work were done on the track during the night to repair the damage tarmac in Corner 2 and Corner 9 and it is on a fresher track that the 20 drivers took the start for Race 2. Top 6 reversed grid put Ameya Vaidyanathan on pole with on his side Enaam Ahmed. An "easy" race for Enaam who took the lead at the start crossed the finish line in the first position, signing his first win of the season. Pedro was the best performer of the M2 Drivers and climbed on the 3rd place of the podium, keeping the record of having at least one M2 Driver on the podium since 2015. Once again a solid performance of the M2 Drivers with 5 of them in the top 10 : Marcus (P4), Kami (P6), Jehan (P8) and Ferdinand (P10). A solid race from Jean Baptiste who finished P16.
New Zealand Motor Cup was the ultimate race of the week end and was the opportunity to close the gap to the leader as he had to come back to the pits after a contact at the beginning of the race and therefore was a the back of the field. Ferdinand recovered from a difficult week end to finally show his potential, finishing P2 in front of his team mates Jehan (P3) and Pedro (P4). Kami was there as well as he crossed the finish line in P4 after a great performance but was judge responsible for the collision with Verschoor and therefore had a 30sec penalty who dropped him down to P15. Marcus (DNF) was a victim of a crash at the beginning of the race and was not able to score any points for this race. Best result in a race for Jean Baptiste who finished P14.
Pedro has closed the gap to the leader of the Championship by half, having now only 51 points gap. Jehan (P4) and Marcus (P5) are still in the fight as well. Ferdinand (P8) and Kami (P9) complete the top 10 and have still their chance to play for the next two rounds. Jean Baptiste is moving up in the ranking and now is P18 in the Championship. M2 Competition has increased his gap now to 220 points to his closest competitor.
All the drivers are now heading to Taupo for Round 4 of Toyota Racing Series.
All the pictures by Bruce Jenkins
