A New Zealander has finished on the podium at the Miami Grand Prix, with Ryan Yardley coming home third in the second race of the Porsche Carrera Cup North America.
The result comes less than 24 hours after the Kiwi was taken out in the opening race while battling for fourth and is his third podium in four starts this season.
Yardley was immediately on the pace at the Miami International Autodrome, qualifying his Topp Racing Porsche third on Sunday morning. His 1:57.370 was only two-tenths off Alex Sedgwick’s pole-setting time and one-tenth off second-placed Jimmy Llibre.
That progress was quickly undone in the early stages of the opener, with the Kiwi taking contact from Gus Burton while battling in the top five, resulting in a puncture.
Loek Hartog went on to take race honours despite crossing the line second, with winner Sedgwick penalised 10 seconds post-race for changing lanes at the start.
The race finished behind the Safety Car, with Llibre also coming together with Burton with 17 minutes remaining. Issues with his vehicle’s recovery prevented proceedings from resuming.
Kiwi Madeline Stewart was classified as 16th in the 38-strong field.
Yardley got the better of Burton in Monday morning’s race, finishing third behind winner Zachary Vanier and runner-up Sedgwick. The latter briefly took the lead in the final minutes but was forced to give the position back for exceeding track limits.
More than half of the 40-minute race was spent behind the Safety Car following a multi-car incident that involved Stewart and several others at the start.
Dan Clarke then hit the barriers, which required repair, shortly after the resumption, bringing about another caution.
Less than six minutes remained on the restart, and a chaotic final few laps saw Vanier hold on for his maiden Carrera Cup victory, two-tenths ahead of Sedgwick and eight-tenths ahead of Yardley.
“It was a nice way to bounce back,” Yardley said in a message to Velocity News after the race.
The Porsche Carrera Cup returns to action in support of the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal on June 7-9.
Header Image: Supplied
