2015 Toyota Racing Series

2015 Toyota Racing Series

Drivers' Champion: Lance Stroll

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The 2015 Toyota Racing Series was the eleventh running of the Toyota Racing Series, the premier open-wheeler motorsport category held in New Zealand. The series, which consisted of sixteen races at five meetings, began on 14 January at Ruapuna Park in Christchurch, and ended on 15 February with the 60th running of the New Zealand Grand Prix, at Manfeild Autocourse in Feilding.

With a third-place finish in the penultimate race of the season at Manfeild, Canadian driver Lance Stroll  – driving for M2 Competition – clinched the championship title, having amassed an unassailable 93-point lead ahead of the final race. ^[1] Stroll won three of the first four races held in the series at Ruapuna and Teretonga (taking the round wins at both circuits) before consistent finishing for the remainder of the campaign allowed him to maintain his championship lead throughout. Stroll added his fourth win of the season in the final race, the New Zealand Grand Prix, becoming the first Canadian to win the Grand Prix. M2 Competition team-mate Brandon Maïsano finished the season as runner-up, 108 points in arrears of Stroll. Maïsano won five races during the season – the most of all drivers – with a win at each meeting except for Teretonga, while taking the round win at Hampton Downs.

Third place in the championship went to Santino Ferrucci, for the Giles Motorsport team. Ferrucci took five podium finishes before taking his first victory at Manfeild, in the second race. He finished 33 points behind Maïsano and 141 behind Stroll. Four other drivers took race victories during the 2015 season as Arjun Maini (M2 Competition) and Sam MacLeod (Giles Motorsport) each won two races – both at Hampton Downs and Taupō respectively – as they completed the top five in the drivers' championship, with MacLeod taking the round wins at Taupō and Manfeild. Two drivers from New Zealand also won races, both coming at Teretonga Park as Jamie Conroy – another M2 Competition driver – and Brendon Leitch, for Victory Motor Racing, both achieved their first victories in the series. Only ETEC Motorsport failed to take a race win, with a pair of third places from Thomas Randle being their best result.

Teams and drivers

All teams were New-Zealand registered.

Team	No.	Driver	Status	Rounds
Giles Motorsport	4	Alfonso Celis Jr. [2]	R	All
	5	Sam MacLeod [2]	R	All
	7	Dzhon Simonyan [2]	R	1–3
		Sérgio Sette Câmara	R	4–5
	10	Santino Ferrucci [2]	R	All
	21	Artem Markelov [3]	R	All
	40	James Munro [4]		All
M2 Competition	8	Mathias Kristensen [2]	R	All
	18	Lance Stroll [3]	R	All
	19	Brandon Maïsano	R	All
	23	Jamie Conroy [5]	R	All
	28	Charlie Eastwood [2]	R	All
	36	Arjun Maini [2]	R	All
Victory Motor Racing	11	Stefan Riener [2]	R	All
	62	Ferdinand Habsburg [2]	R	All
	86	Brendon Leitch [2]		All
	87	Damon Leitch [3]		All
ETEC Motorsport	12	Matteo Ferrer [2]	R	All
	17	Nikita Mazepin [2]	R	All
	49	Thomas Randle [6]	R	All
	53	Callum Ilott [7]	R	All

Race calendar and results

The calendar for the series was announced on 14 July 2014, and was held over five successive weekends in January and February. ^[8] The event at Taupo Motorsport Park was held as a quadruple-header, ^[9] the first such instance for the series.

Round		Date	Circuit	Pole position	Fastest lap	Winning driver	Winning team	Round winner(s)
1	R1	17 January	Ruapuna Park, Christchurch	Brandon Maïsano	Stefan Riener	Lance Stroll	M2 Competition	Lance Stroll
	R2	18 January			Brandon Maïsano	Brandon Maïsano	M2 Competition
	R3			Sam MacLeod	Sam MacLeod	Lance Stroll	M2 Competition
2	R1	24 January	Teretonga Park, Invercargill	Matteo Ferrer	Lance Stroll	Lance Stroll	M2 Competition	Lance Stroll
	R2	25 January			Santino Ferrucci	Jamie Conroy	M2 Competition
	R3			Brendon Leitch	Santino Ferrucci	Brendon Leitch	Victory Motor Racing
3	R1	31 January	Hampton Downs Motorsport Park, Waikato	Arjun Maini	Arjun Maini	Arjun Maini	M2 Competition	Brandon Maïsano
	R2	1 February			Ferdinand Habsburg	Brandon Maïsano	M2 Competition
	R3			Brandon Maïsano	Arjun Maini	Sam MacLeod	Giles Motorsport
4	R1	7 February	Taupo Motorsport Park, Taupō	Arjun Maini	Thomas Randle	Sam MacLeod	Giles Motorsport	Sam MacLeod
	R2				Brandon Maïsano	Brandon Maïsano	M2 Competition
	R3	8 February		Brandon Maïsano	Brandon Maïsano	Brandon Maïsano	M2 Competition
	R4			Arjun Maini	Charlie Eastwood	Arjun Maini	M2 Competition
5	R1	14 February	Manfeild Autocourse, Feilding	Brandon Maïsano	Brandon Maïsano	Brandon Maïsano	M2 Competition	Sam MacLeod
	R2	15 February			Callum Ilott	Santino Ferrucci	Giles Motorsport
	R3			Arjun Maini	Brandon Maïsano	Lance Stroll	M2 Competition

Championship standings

In order for a driver to score championship points, they had to complete at least 75% of the race winner's distance, and be running at the race's completion. All races counted towards the final championship standings.

Scoring system

Position	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	11th	12th	13th	14th	15th	16th	17th	18th	19th	20th
Points	75	67	60	54	49	45	42	39	36	33	30	28	26	24	22	20	18	16	14	12

Drivers' championship

Pos. Driver RUA TER HMP TAU MAN Points 1 Lance Stroll 1 4 1 1 3 3 Ret 5 2 3 4 2 11 6 3 1 906 2 Brandon Maïsano 5 1 Ret 12 11 6 2 1 3 6 1 1 Ret 1 8 3 798 3 Santino Ferrucci 7 5 4 Ret 17 2 3 3 5 2 2 8 16 5 1 5 765 4 Arjun Maini 2 6 2 9 7 4 1 16 4 12 14 4 1 2 17 14 750 5 Sam MacLeod Ret 8 5 Ret 13 5 Ret 9 1 1 6 3 5 3 2 4 684 6 Damon Leitch 15 9 14 8 9 13 5 6 18 8 8 5 6 12 16 10 546 7 Charlie Eastwood 4 2 Ret 14 12 10 12 14 15 NC 9 7 3 15 12 2 535 8 Artem Markelov Ret Ret 3 5 2 7 7 Ret 6 14 Ret Ret 2 7 7 6 525 9 James Munro 13 10 12 2 4 9 6 Ret 9 7 Ret 6 4 9 Ret 16 522 10 Thomas Randle 3 14 6 11 8 8 Ret 8 7 4 3 Ret 9 19 Ret 9 518 11 Mathias Kristensen 9 12 10 10 10 14 9 4 19 11 7 14 7 14 10 18 502 12 Ferdinand Habsburg 6 3 Ret 7 6 12 10 2 11 15 16 16 14 11 14 Ret 490 13 Stefan Riener 11 15 7 3 Ret DNS 13 7 10 9 5 15 Ret 10 5 8 483 14 Brendon Leitch 10 Ret 9 4 5 1 DSQ 11 16 NC 11 10 8 13 11 15 477 15 Jamie Conroy 12 11 13 6 1 11 NC 13 14 Ret 13 11 13 18 9 12 446 16 Callum Ilott 16 NC Ret 15 14 Ret 4 12 17 Ret 12 12 12 4 4 Ret 358 17 Alfonso Celis Jr. 8 7 8 DNS Ret DNS Ret 10 12 10 Ret 18 10 17 15 13 329 18 Nikita Mazepin Ret 13 Ret 13 16 15 11 Ret 8 13 10 17 15 20 Ret 11 304 19 Matteo Ferrer 14 16 11 Ret 15 NC Ret 15 13 Ret 17 9 Ret 16 13 7 286 20 Sérgio Sette Câmara 5 15 13 Ret 8 6 17 199 21 Dzhon Simonyan Ret Ret DNS DNS 18 Ret 8 NC Ret 55 Pos. Driver RUA TER HMP TAU MAN Points

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver Second place Bronze Third place Green Points classification Blue Non-points classification Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Retired, not classified (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Withdrew (WD) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not practice (DNP) Did not arrive (DNA) Excluded (EX) Bold – Pole Italics – Fastest Lap

References

1. Khorounzhiy, Valentin (2015-03-10). "2015 Toyota Racing Series season review". Formula Scout. Retrieved 2024-08-11.
2. "Markelov e Stroll nella Toyota Racing Series" [Markelov and Stroll in the Toyota Racing Series]. Italiaracing (in Italian). Inpagina. 16 December 2014. Archived from the original on 17 December 2014. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
3. "The names of the future — racing here today". Toyota Racing Series. 13 December 2014. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
4. Khorounzhiy, Valentin (4 December 2014). "FMCS champion Munro confirms Toyota Racing Series return". Paddock Scout. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
5. Khorounzhiy, Valentin (16 December 2014). "NZ Formula Ford champion Conroy joins Toyota Racing Series". Paddock Scout. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
6. Khorounzhiy, Valentin (6 December 2014). "Thomas Randle joins ETEC for 2015 Toyota Racing Series campaign". Paddock Scout. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
7. Khorounzhiy, Valentin (28 December 2014). "Karting star Ilott joins TRS for car debut". Paddock Scout. Retrieved 1 January 2015.
8. "TOYOTA RACING SERIES ANNOUNCES 2015 CHAMPIONSHIP CALENDAR". MotorSport New Zealand. 14 July 2014. Retrieved 23 September 2014.
9. "2015 Toyota Racing Series Championship Articles" (PDF). MotorSport New Zealand. MotorSport New Zealand Inc. p. 8. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 January 2015. Retrieved 17 January 2015. 7.4.1 (b): The races available at Round 4 will be; Saturday afternoon – Race One and Race Two, Sunday afternoon – Race Three and Race Four.