Nakamura pips Wood to New Zealand GP pole by 0.1s

Photo: TGR NZ

Hitech GP’s Jin Nakamura claimed pole for the 2026 New Zealand Grand Prix by topping the final stage of qualifying at Highlands Motorsport Park.

The session was split into three segments, with the top 14 progressing from Q1 to Q2, then the top eight during the second period of track action making it to Q3. That group then fought for pole in the grand prix, the last race of Formula Regional Oceania’s season.

Liam Sceats, returning to the grid after winning the grand prix in 2024, was fastest at first in Q1 ahead of HMD Motorsports with TJ Speed team-mate James Wharton and Nakamura.

Louis Sharp moved to the top six minutes into the 15-minute session, a 1m29.577s putting him ahead of team-mate Ryan Wood by just 0.005 seconds. Zack Scoular made it an MTEC Motorsport 1-2-3, 0.222s behind, and Kiwi Motorsport’s Yevan David was fourth until Nakamura lowered the pace to 1m29.06s.

At that point his Hitech team-mate Kanato Le jumped to second, 0.192s off Nakamura’s pace, HMD’s returnee James Wharton improved to fifth and David was shuffled down to eighth. M2 Competition’s title contenders Ugo Ugochukwu and Freddie Slater were faring very badly, sitting 15th and 16th.

But approaching the halfway mark of the 15-minute session, Slater posted a 1m28.945s to go fastest and Wood set a 1m29.077s to sit third ahead of Le and M2’s Ernesto Rivera. Ugochukwu was now down in 19th, which was last place as Hitech GP’s Kalle Rovanpera was absent due to illness that manifested that followed pre-event testing.

Sharp returned to first place by 0.119s, but Nakamura shaved 0.07s off that benchmark and Le improved to 1m29.135s in fifth. A pace gain of almost 0.7s lifted Ugochukwu from last to first eight-and-a-half minutes in, a 1m28.735s getting him ahead of Nakamura by 0.021s.

With four-and-a-half minutes to go, Scoular and Wood moved into third and fourth with a 0.003s gap between them, and on the next lap there were marginal gains. Ugochukwu lowered the pace by 0.017s, Nakamura improved by 0.001s and Wood found 0.014s in improvements to rise to third.

Nakamura usurped Ugochukwu in the final 30s, edging ahead by 0.013s as Sharp matched Ugochukwu’s pace. Scoular made a gain in fourth, and there were no post-chequered flag improvements. Among the eliminated was Hitech’s Fionn McLaughlin.

Q2 was 10 minutes, and Nakamura was first to the top. He had a huge 1.447s gap to Le five-and-a-half minutes in, then Sceats slashed it to 0.781s, and Sharp also got within a second of him. At this point Slater was seventh and Ugochukwu had only done an outlap.

When Nakamura brought the pace down to 1m28.944s with three minutes to go, Slater became his closest rival 0.111s behind and the top nine all lapped sub-1m30s. Ugochukwu was still without a flying lap.

Slater went fastest with one minute left on the clock, setting a 1m28.486s to lead Wood by 0.276s and Sceats by 0.278s. Everyone improved including Ugochukwu, who was now 13th. He moved up to 10th with his next effort, then was demoted to 11th as Wharton went 10th quickest at the chequered flag. With his own final lap, Ugochukwu leapt up to fifth to secured his Q3 spot.

Le got within 0.153s of Slater after that, and Scoular lapped 0.215s off him to demote Wood to fourth.

Nakamura ended Q2 in seventh, but returned to the fore in the 12-minute Q3. He was on top until Sceats set a 1m29.388s six minutes in, then the next laps were in the 1m28s for most. Nakamura posted a 1m28.339s to lead Slater by 0.279s and Sceats by 0.307s, then Wood got within 0.205s of the provisional poleman.

Ugochukwu reduced that gap to the top down to 0.148s on his next lap, and Le demoted Slater to fifth.

Wood improved again in the final two minutes, but remained 0.1s from pole, and Scoular edged ahead of Le. The only change after that was Sharp beating Sceats to seventh after the chequered flag, and grand prix pole went to Nakamura.

Qualifying results