
Photo: Toyota Gazoo Racing NZ
Red Bull junior Arvid Lindblad pipped Matias Zagazeta to top spot by 0.001 seconds in Formula Regional Oceania pre-event testing at Hampton Downs.
Thursday’s track action was split into two sessions, and in the first one it was MTEC Motorsport’s Josh Pierson who set the pace on his 17th and final lap.
A 1m30.056s put him 0.462s clear of team-mate Patrick Heuzenroeder, who also improved on his 17th and final lap and met the chequered flag 11s after Pierson did.
M2 Competition’s Nikita Johnson had been fastest after posting a 1m30.942s a minute earlier, but failed to improve with his last lap. Lindblad, MTEC’s Zack Scoular and Giles Motorsport’s Will Brown also broke the 1m31s barrier to end the session within a second of Pierson’s pace.
Pierson (who did the most running of anyone) and Johnson did not set new personal best laptimes in session two, so dropped to fourth and 13th in the test’s overall classification. Zagazeta had been fastest before M2 team-mate Lindblad squeaked ahead on his last lap of testing, and Giles’ Alex Crosbie set a 1m29.934s to be third fastest.
A 1m30.157s from Heuzenroeder with 10 minutes to go put him fifth overall for the day, and later Scoular matched his pace. Pierson was sixth fastest in the session, ahead of Brown, MTEC’s Shawn Rashid and M2 duo Enzo Yeh and Michael Shin.
A second covered the top 12 drivers, and Johnson was 14th in the session. Giles’ Barrett Wolfe was slowest of all, lapping 2.259s off the pace.
Test results
Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Arvid Lindblad | M2 Competition | 1m29.790s | 32 | |
2 | Matias Zagazeta | M2 Competition | 1m29.791s | +0.001s | 31 |
3 | Alex Crosbie | Giles Motorsport | 1m29.934s | +0.144s | 30 |
4 | Josh Pierson | MTEC Motorsport | 1m30.056s | +0.266s | 36 |
5 | Patrick Heuzenroeder | MTEC Motorsport | 1m30.157s | +0.367s | 35 |
6 | Zack Scoular | MTEC Motorsport | 1m30.157s | +0.367s | 32 |
7 | Will Brown | Giles Motorsport | 1m30.453s | +0.663s | 30 |
8 | Shawn Rashid | MTEC Motorsport | 1m30.505s | +0.715s | 32 |
9 | Enzo Yeh | M2 Competition | 1m30.686s | +0.896s | 32 |
10 | Michael Shin | M2 Competition | 1m30.701s | +0.911s | 33 |
11 | Sebastian Manson | M2 Competition | 1m30.717s | +0.927s | 31 |
12 | Nicholas Monteiro | MTEC Motorsport | 1m30.741s | +0.951s | 32 |
13 | Nikita Johnson | M2 Competition | 1m30.942s | +1.152s | 31 |
14 | Jett Bowling | Kiwi Motorsport | 1m30.970s | +1.180s | 31 |
15 | Nicolas Stati | Kiwi Motorsport | 1m31.059s | +1.269s | 31 |
16 | James Lawley | Kiwi Motorsport | 1m31.776s | +1.986s | 29 |
17 | Barrett Wolfe | Giles Motorsport | 1m32.049s | +2.259s | 30 |