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STROLL TAKES TOYOTA RACING SERIES DOUBLE

Tuesday 17 February 2015, 10:08AM

By Mark Baker

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Proud dad and champion son
Proud dad and champion son Credit: Bruce Jenkins/Toyota Racing New Zealand

Lance Stroll takes the double: New Zealand Grand Prix and Toyota Racing Series
• Stroll, 16, takes TRS championship  title with third place in Sunday morning race
• Elated Canadian backs championship win with Grand Prix victory
• Weekend race winners Maisano, Ferrucci and Stroll

The championship and the Grand Prix: Lance Stroll has backed up his victory in the 2015 Toyota Racing Series with a hard-fought win in the 60th New Zealand Grand Prix at Manfeild near Palmerston North.
Stroll, racing in New Zealand with M2 Competition, is a protégé of the Ferrari Driver Academy and was this week confirmed to contest the 2015 FIA European Formula Three Championship with Italian team Prema.
Stroll won the first feature race of the series, the Lady Wigram Trophy, at the opening round in January, and led the points battle through all five rounds. He took the championship title in Sunday morning’s 15 lap race and backed that with the Grand Prix win in the afternoon as pole man Arjun Maini went off the track in the early running. British driver Sam MacLeod was second in the Grand Prix, capping a five week campaign of race wins and pole positions that saw him constantly improving as he became accustomed to the handling and performance of his car. MacLeod won the prestigious NZ Motor Cup, New Zealand’s oldest motor racing trophy, at the series mid-point.
Stroll’s TRS and Prema team-mate Brandon Maisano was third in the Grand Prix, amassing enough points to make sure of second place in the championship.
There was bitter disappointment for Maini, who finished the morning race two laps down on the field then saw pole evaporate in the feature with a tangle that tore the front wing off his car.
Maini is regarded as one of the ‘finds’ of the series and had won the Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy at the penultimate round.
His misfortune in both races of the Grand Prix Sunday brought a delighted Santino Ferrucci to a deserved third overall in the championship. Ferrucci won the morning race and was fifth in the 35-lap Grand Prix.
After the race, Stroll said he had concentrated throughout the championship on being consistent in qualifying and races and focussed on banking points rather than chasing outright wins as the five week, sixeen race series progressed.
“I knew in this morning’s race that when Arjun went off all I had to do was finish in front of [team-mate] Brandon to win the championship. I knew third was good enough,” he said afterward.
Then adding the Grand Prix to the championship win was “amazing”.
“Once the title was won I went into the longer Grand Prix just looking to make a great finish and stay out of trouble. When I saw Arjun and Brandon tangle I was through the mess and making sure of a lead, “ he said.
From the start, the Grand Prix quickly developed into a three-way race between Stroll and his two M2 Competition Motorsport team-mates, Maini and Maisano. The latter pair tangled as Maisano pushed for the lead. Maisano’s fronts tyre dislodged Maini's front wing and both left the track.
That allowed Stroll to dive through from third to lead the Grand Prix.
Behind him – and chasing the Canadian in a determined charge – was Irish driver Charlie Eastwood. Maisano had recovered to be third, Maini pitted to replaced his front wing and was out of contention.
At the chequered flag Stroll’s winning margin over Eastwood was 1.138 seconds, Maisano making a last-gasp push on Eastwood and the two cars crossing the line just .101 seconds apart.
"I knew they were going to fight and when they touched I went through. I said to myself, 'you've been in this position before, stay focussed and just bring it home'."
All four New Zealand drivers finished. Damon Leitch was tenth, Jamie Conroy 12th, James Munro 15th and Brendon Leitch 16th. Damon Leitch was te bets of the New Zealanders in the championship, finishing seventh with 530 points.
Stroll’s father Lawrence, on hand to see his son take the double win, said the five week championship was a “perfect” preparation for the coming year in Europe, where Lance Stroll has been confirmed to race with Prema in the fiercely competitive FIA European Formula 3 Championship.
“It couldn’t be better, winning the championship and the Grand Prix on the same day. All-out perfection. The competition level has been fantastic from beginning to end, and my hat is off to the organisers as they’ve done a fantastic job.”
Lance Stroll is only the second international driver to take the TRS title, the first to take the Grand Prix/TRS double victory. He is the first international to have won the Grand Prix in its time at Manfeild. At the series prixegiving on Sunday evening he donated all his winning prizemoney to the New Zealand youth cancer charity CanTeen.
Stroll’s M2 and Prema team-mate Maisano set fastest lap of the Grand Prix (1:02.845) and leaves with a new race lap record for TRS at Manfeild: a 1:02.653 set in Saturday’s race.