Canadian Lance Stroll played a patient waiting game to win the 60th New Zealand Grand Prix at Manfeild, Feilding today.
Not only did he win the champions’ laurels but he also did the double, winning the Toyota Racing Series with almost 100 points to spare.
The 35-lapper developed into a three-way race between Stroll and his two M2 Motorsport team-mates, Indian Arjun Maini and Frenchman Brandon Maisano.
Maini started on pole and held the lead for 18 laps until Maini and Maisano came together when out in front. As Maisano tried to overtake his tyre dislodged Maini’s front wing, in what was later judged to be a racing incident.
That allowed Stroll to dive through from third and from then it was race over, the second win of the weekend for the 16-year-old from Montreal.
Irishman Charlie Eastwood also took advantage to scoot up to second, holding off a disappointed Maisano on the finish line.
Stroll will move up to European Formula 3 with the Prema team in Italy and was the most consistent driver in the five-week New Zealand series.
“I’m very happy,” he said. “I knew that it was a very long race.
“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 and bring it home’.”
All 11 other NZGPs held at Manfeild had been won by New Zealanders.
Maisano won the first race on Saturday for the Dan Higgins Memorial Trophy, making up for his airborne crash at Taupo the previous weekend which almost wrecked his car.
Saturday’s was one of the quietest races of the five-week series with the safety car not required once, Maisano leading from start to finish.
The Frenchman, despite having a gear-shift problem, kept Maini at bay for the entire race after both had been on the front row of the grid. Stroll had started in fourth but dropped to eighth.
In race two today, there were two safety-car incursions before young American Santino Ferrucci won his first race of the series.
Stroll had started on pole, but he was overtaken by Ferrucci and Briton Sam MacLeod going into the first corner. That was the way it stayed with Stroll earning 60 points to take him to the championship win.
He was comfortable once Maini returned to the pits on lap two after the latter came together with Kiwi James Munro on the first lap.
“Once I heard Arjun was off the track I knew I had to finish in front of Brandon,” Stroll said.
