The 2016 Toyota Racing Series was the twelfth running of the Toyota Racing Series, the premier open-wheel motorsport category held in New Zealand. The series, which consisted of fifteen races at five meetings, began on 16 January at Ruapuna Park in Christchurch, and ended on 14 February with the 61st running of the New Zealand Grand Prix, at Manfeild Autocourse in Feilding.

As the first European driver to win the Toyota Racing Series, M2 Competition's Lando Norris wrapped up the championship with a race to spare, amassing six wins, eight poles, five fastest laps, and three round wins on his way to the title. Norris won a race at every meeting, taking a pair of victories in Taupō, while only finishing off the podium four times.

Force India protégé Jehan Daruvala took the runner-up spot in the championship, with one pole and three wins. Daruvala struggled in Ruapuna, but a strategic tyre gamble in a soggy Race 3 paid off, enabling him to take the Lady Wigram Trophy, despite starting 15th. Two further wins followed in Teretonga and Taupō, and solid top-8 finishes in each of the last nine races helped the Indian to second place overall.

New Zealand's Brendon Leitch finished the season in third, despite only one win and three podiums. However, it was his consistency that gave him such a good championship position, as he finished every race in the top 10. Leitch's 754-point haul is also the most points accrued by a Victory Motor Racing driver in team history.

Of the other drivers, Ferdinand Habsburg was top Giles Motorsport driver, after a strong campaign saw him take two wins. Pedro Piquet also took victory on two occasions, first in the second race at Teretonga, and again at Hampton Downs, where a superb run from pole saw him take the NZ Motor Cup. Piquet was often runaway leader Norris's main challenger, both on track and in the standings. Ferrari Driver Academy member Guanyu Zhou scored a breakthrough win in Hampton Downs and finished strongly throughout the duration of the series, although a disastrous final weekend compromised his attack. Rookie Taylor Cockerton was the best-placed ETEC Motorsport driver, finishing in ninth.

Teams and drivers All teams were New Zealand-registered. Team Driver Status Rounds ETEC Motorsport 4 Theo Bean All 11 Taylor Cockerton All 13 Rodrigo Baptista All 26 Timothé Buret All M2 Competition 5 Pedro Piquet All 6 Jehan Daruvala All 10 Artem Markelov All 15 Kami Moreira-Laliberté All 31 Lando Norris All 33 Guanyu Zhou All Giles Motorsport 17 Devlin DeFrancesco All 21 Nicolas Dapero All 23 Will Owen All 40 James Munro All 62 Ferdinand Habsburg All 67 Antoni Ptak Jr. All Victory Motor Racing 18 Julian Hanses All 25 Bruno Baptista All 49 Thomas Randle 5 86 Brendon Leitch All

Race calendar and results The calendar for the series was announced on 23 June 2015, and will be held over five successive weekends in January and February. As opposed to the previous year, all rounds will be triple-headers.

Round Date Circuit Pole position Fastest lap Winning driver Winning team Report 1 R1 16 January Ruapuna Park, Christchurch Lando Norris Lando Norris Ferdinand Habsburg Giles Motorsport Ferdinand Habsburg Report R2 17 January Lando Norris Lando Norris M2 Competition R3 Lando Norris Pedro Piquet Jehan Daruvala M2 Competition 2 R1 23 January Teretonga Park, Invercargill Lando Norris Jehan Daruvala Jehan Daruvala M2 Competition Lando Norris Report R2 24 January Lando Norris Pedro Piquet M2 Competition R3 Lando Norris Lando Norris Lando Norris M2 Competition 3 R1 30 January Hampton Downs Motorsport Park, Waikato Lando Norris Jehan Daruvala Lando Norris M2 Competition Pedro Piquet Report R2 31 January Guanyu Zhou Guanyu Zhou M2 Competition R3 Pedro Piquet Ferdinand Habsburg Pedro Piquet M2 Competition 4 R1 6 February Bruce McLaren Motorsport Park, Taupō Lando Norris Pedro Piquet Lando Norris M2 Competition Lando Norris Report R2 7 February Jehan Daruvala Jehan Daruvala M2 Competition R3 Lando Norris Lando Norris Lando Norris M2 Competition 5 R1 13 February Manfeild Autocourse, Feilding Jehan Daruvala James Munro Ferdinand Habsburg Giles Motorsport Lando Norris Report R2 14 February Pedro Piquet Brendon Leitch Victory Motor Racing R3 Lando Norris Ferdinand Habsburg Lando Norris M2 Competition

Championship standings In order for a driver to score championship points, they have 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 Lando Norris 3 1 9 2 2 1 1 17 6 1 2 1 3 4 1 924 2 Jehan Daruvala 8 13 1 1 5 17 2 4 3 5 1 8 4 2 7 789 3 Brendon Leitch 6 9 5 5 4 2 5 2 9 7 4 5 5 1 10 754 4 Ferdinand Habsburg 1 7 2 13 8 4 6 9 8 6 12 4 1 7 3 727 5 Pedro Piquet 7 2 Ret 4 1 10 3 3 1 2 5 2 Ret 8 15 710 6 Guanyu Zhou 5 3 4 7 6 8 7 1 4 4 3 3 Ret 10 17 685 7 James Munro 4 Ret 14 15 10 9 4 11 2 3 6 11 2 6 4 621 8 Artem Markelov 2 4 3 6 3 3 12 Ret 5 12 7 Ret Ret 12 2 588 9 Taylor Cockerton 9 11 11 11 12 11 10 8 10 9 9 6 6 5 6 545 10 Devlin DeFrancesco 14 10 6 Ret 14 5 11 13 12 8 11 10 7 9 13 465 11 Bruno Baptista Ret 8 8 Ret 13 6 9 7 Ret 10 8 7 9 11 9 443 12 Antoni Ptak Jr. 13 5 12 3 Ret 15 8 5 11 Ret Ret 14 8 3 Ret 426 13 Kami Moreira-Laliberté Ret 14 7 Ret 16 7 17 6 7 11 Ret 9 14 14 8 386 14 Will Owen 11 12 Ret 10 9 13 16 10 Ret 13 10 12 15 17 14 357 15 Timothé Buret 10 6 15 14 11 Ret 13 15 13 16 Ret 13 10 13 18 349 16 Rodrigo Baptista Ret 16 13 9 18 16 15 14 14 17 Ret Ret 11 16 11 286 17 Nicolas Dapero 12 DSQ 10 8 7 18 19 Ret Ret 14 Ret Ret Ret 15 16 238 18 Theo Bean 16 17 Ret 12 17 14 18 12 Ret 15 13 15 Ret 18 Ret 238 19 Julian Hanses 15 15 Ret Ret 15 12 14 16 Ret Ret Ret 16 13 19 12 226 20 Thomas Randle 12 20 5 89 Pos. Driver RUA TER HMP TAU MAN PointsBold – Pole Italics – Fastest Lap Rookie

References