Manfeild TRS: Habsburg wins, Norris on the brink of title

With closest rival Pedro Piquet recording his second retirement of the campaign after a clash with Artem Markelov, Norris moved to 115 points in the clear - with just 150 left up for grabs in the two remaining races.

The Piquet - Markelov incident took place on lap 4, bringing out the first safety car of the race.

At that point, Norris had headed the field, the Briton having pounced on poleman Jehan Daruvala off the line.

Crucially, Daruvala would then slip behind Giles duo James Munro and Habsburg after the restart and another safety car - for debris from Nicolas Dapero's car - meant the two drivers would get a shot at Norris.

When the race resumed, a three-way tussle for the lead saw Habsburg move up from third to first with nine laps to go, and the Austrian made the most of the opportunity, going on to record his second win in the championship.

Munro subsequently passed Norris for second to complete a Giles 1-2, with the Briton rounding out the podium and Daruvala, who now stands as the championship leader's nearest rival, finishing fourth.

Brendon Leitch worked his way up from 13th to fifth, ahead of fellow Kiwi Taylor Cockerton and a recovering Markelov, with the top 10 completed by Devlin DeFrancesco, Antoni Ptak and Bruno Baptista.

Series returnee and Australian F4 runner-up Thomas Randle, back for a one-off after his race-winning campaign in 2015, took 14th from last on the grid.

Ferrari protege Guan Yu Zhou joined Piquet in the list of retirements with three laps to go - but while Piquet still retains narrow mathematical chances at the title, Zhou has been ruled out of contention.

A ninth-place finish in Race 2 will be enough to guarantee Norris the 2016 TRS crown.

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time/Delay
1	Ferdinand Habsburg	Giles	25:35.551
2	James Munro	Giles	1.003
3	Lando Norris	M2	2.844
4	Jehan Daruvala	M2	4.333
5	Brendon Leitch	Victory	5.736
6	Taylor Cockerton	ETEC	6.083
7	Artem Markelov	M2	6.989
8	Devlin DeFrancesco	Giles	9.844
9	Antoni Ptak	Giles	10.42
10	Bruno Baptista	Victory	13.249
11	Timothe Buret	ETEC	14.721
12	Rodrigo Baptista	ETEC	15.242
13	Will Owen	Giles	16.26
14	Thomas Randle	Victory	16.507
15	Julian Hanses	Victory	20.637
16	Kami Laliberte	M2	1 Lap
17	Nicolas Dapero	Giles	1 Lap
Ret	Guan Yu Zhou	M2
Ret	Theo Bean	ETEC
Ret	Pedro Piquet	M2