He’s the surprise addition to the grid for the fourth round, but Mitch Evans has already shown the effortless pace that made him a double champion and the youngest Grand Prix winner in the world.
Aucklander Evans looms as the unexpected challenge for series front-runners aiming to maximise their points out of the penultimate round of the 2013 championship.
While British racer Alex Lynn was fastest in the first session this morning, Evans – who has not raced since he won the GP3 championship and has not race a TRS car in almost a year – comfortably dominated the following two sessions, dipping below the existing race lap record in the third session, setting a best lap of 1:00.779 in the hottest part of a 32-degree day.
Evans says he has watched the 2013 series closely and has been “busting” to get into the racing. He will almost literally leave the track this weekend and get on a plane to start his 2013 GP2 series campaign.
In the first session Alex Lynn and Lucas Auer were quickest, continuing the intense rivalry that began at the first round in Invercargill last month. Lynn was fastest, setting a time of 1:01.855 late in the session. Mitch Evans was third, just behind the duelling pair.
The second session saw Evans go almost a second under Lynn’s time, setting a fastest lap of 1:00.922 ahead of Bruno Bonifacio on 1:01.112. UK racer and TRS rookie Jann Mardenborough was third on 1:01.474.
In the final session, as Evans settled back into the TRS groove, he said the car and track ‘really came together’, taking him under the lap record and within 1/10th of his 2012 qualifying time. He posted a fastest time of 1:00.779, fastest time of the day across TRS and the other categories that will race at Hampton Downs this weekend.
Lynn and Mardenborough were also comfortably well within the 1:00 laps, second and third fastest respectively.
The three free practice sessions saw another newcomer, Italian Ignazio D’Agosto, show early promise with 11th in the first session, sixth in the next and then fifth in the final session. D’Agosto has made a marathon air trip to race this weekend and at the New Zealand Grand Prix next weekend with the aim of returning to contest the full series in 2014.
