Ruapuna TRS: Habsburg claims career-first win in opener
Ferdinand Habsburg passed poleman Lando Norris off the line to claim his first win in open-wheel racing in the opening race of the 2016 Toyota Racing Series campaign at Ruapuna.
Photo by: Press Image
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 |
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