South American blend flavour of the day at Teretonga
It was a day for the South Americans in Invercargill today, with Brazilians Igor Fraga and Caio Collet posting the top two times of the day in the final session of practice ahead of the weekend.
Argentinian Franco Colapinto completed a clean sweep for South America by topping the times in the second session too, on a day when three different teams in the series - M2 Competition, mtec Motorsport and Kiwi Motorsport - saw their drivers head the timesheets.
Fraga, a Playstation master who is running in the series with the backing of Gran Turismo, was fastest of the day on a 53.251 second lap around the 2.57km track. The final session of the day was also the quickest as the drivers got into the groove ahead of Saturday morning qualifying.
Collet continued his good form at the track, clocking the fastest time in the morning session with a 54.804 second lap. Colapinto - a protegé of Fernando Alonso - topped the timesheets in the second with a 54.763 in hot conditions.
He finished ahead ahead of Fraga and Japanese Red Bull Junior Yuki Tsunoda in their M2 Competition run cars in a session that was interrupted by two red flag periods, both involving Axel Gnos in his Kiwi Motorsport Toyota FT60 and both taking place on the circuit's fast first corner, a part of the track proving to be a decent challenge for the drivers.
Fraga and Collet were the class of the field in the third and final session of the day. Grégoire Saucy also went well for Giles Motorsport clocking the third fastest time while Yuki Tsunoda continued his good form of the day with fourth. Colapinto rounded out the top five after another strong session.
It wasn't such a good day for reigning champion and current series leader Liam Lawson, who was ninth in the first session, fifth in the second and then put his car in the gravel at the exit of Turn 2 in the day's final session.
