Bilinski edges Sceats to FRegional Oceania pole at Ruapuna

Photo: TGR NZ

Romain Bilinski took pole position for race one of the penultimate round of the Formula Regional Oceania season at Ruapuna.

The championship leader swapped fastest laps at the top of the order with the returning Jacob Abel throughout Q1, and ended up on top after setting a 1m17.430s to net his fourth pole of the year.

It was a relatively trouble-free session for the field, though a number of drivers did go wide at turn two. Lucas Fecury ran into trouble a handful of times, spinning around early on and once running slightly wide. He managed to continue on both occasions and the session ran green throughout.

Abel led Kaden Probst at the head of the timesheet at first before Bilinski jumped to the top of the order just before the halfway point of Q1.

The pair gradually lowered the pace. Liam Sceats joined the duo in fighting for pole but was never able to get himself into first place and instead occupied second place multiple times. He ended the session having lapped just 0.061 seconds slower than Bilinski and therefore joining him on the front row ahead of Abel.

Kalebl Ngatoa qualified fourth ahead of Patrick Woods-Toth and Alex Crosbie.  

Bryce Aron, the second American driver joining the field for the final two rounds of the season and a series debutant, was seventh fastest. Gerrard Xie, Michael Shin and Titus Sherlock completed the top 10 in the 15-car field.

Qualifying results