Pedro Piquet has taken his first win of the Castrol Toyota Racing Series at Taupo this morning and raced into contention for the overall title.
The Brazilian made the most of his front of the grid start position and beat pole sitter Kami Laliberte of Canada into the first corner and was never headed.
Laliberte initially held second, but was pressured into a mistake by Australian Thomas Randle and slid off the track. By finishing second, Randle has taken the lead in the series by 19 points from Dutch teenager Richard Verschoor who finished sixth.
Kiwis Marcus Armstrong and Brendon Leitch finished fourth and fifth, while Taylor Cockerton was involved in a first lap tangle and had to pit for a new front wing before finishing 15th.
Sunday first race, 15 laps.
1, Pedro Piquet (Brazil);
2, Thomas Randle (Australia);
3, Jehan Daruvala (India)
4, Marcus Armstrong (Christchurch)
5, Brendon Leitch (Invercargill);
6, Richard Verschoor (Netherlands);
7, Enaam Ahmed (England);
8, Luis Leeds (Australia);
9, Thomas Neubauer (France);
10, Keyvan Andres (USA).
