Commanding victory for Lynn in Taupo opener

Alex Lynn took a dominant lights-to-flag victory in the first race of the Toyota Racing Series weekend at Taupo.

Starting from pole position, the Briton kept Nick Cassidy at bay at the start before surging away to a 4.653 second win.

Cassidy came home in second ahead of Steijn Schothorst, the rookie claiming his second podium finish of the campaign and completing a 1-2-3 finish for the M2 Competition squad.?Bruno Bonifacio was fourth, holding off championship leader?Lucas Auer. The Austrian started sixth but managed to get by?Jann Mardenborough, who still scored his best result to-date in sixth.

Damon Leitch and Tatiana Calderon followed Mardenborough across the line, Calderon following up her strong form so far at Taupo with her personal best result. The same could be said for karting graduate Dennis Olsen, who picked up his first top ten finish in ninth ahead of Akash Nandy.

Andrew Tang and Spike Goddard were 11th and 12th, with Nicholas Latifi 13th after an off-track excursion. Tanart Sathienthirakul and Michael Scott were next, with Felix Serralles the last finisher after sustaining a flat tyre early on. His Giles Motorsport teammate Pipo Derani retired after six laps. The duo will have to start race two on Sunday from the back of the grid.