Photo: TGR NZ
Championship leader Roman Bilinski took pole position for the final Formula Regional Oceania race of the weekend at Manfeild.
M2 Competition driver Bilinski, who took victory in race one on Saturday, secured pole by just under two tenths of a second ahead of Giles Motorsport’s Christian Mansell and MTEC Motorsport’s Tommy Smith.
Bilinski topped the times early on with a 1m02.286s lap. That effort would end up not being beaten through the remainder of the 15-minute qualifying session and was enough to secure pole.
As Bilinski pushed to improve his pace, he ran slightly wide over the grass and kicked up dust, but there was no other drama during Q3. Mansell was 0.193s off Bilinski’s benchmark lap, having also set his personal best early in the session.
Smith was one of the few drivers to improve after the initial flurry of laps, jumping up to third place ahead of Giles’ Kaleb Ngatoa, M2’s Nico Lacorte and Gerrard Xie, who were split by less than a tenth of a second on pace.
Liam Sceats managed to go seventh quickest, with Patrick Woods-Toth, Jett Bowling and Michael Shin rounding out the top 10.
Qualifying results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Roman Bilinski | M2 Competition | 1m02.286s | 12 | |
| 2 | Christian Mansell | Giles Motorsport | 1m02.479s | +0.193s | 13 |
| 3 | Tommy Smith | MTEC Motorsport | 1m02.738s | +0.452s | 11 |
| 4 | Kaleb Ngatoa | Giles Motorsport | 1m02.761s | +0.475s | 12 |
| 5 | Nico Lacorte | M2 Competition | 1m02.817s | +0.531s | 12 |
| 6 | Gerrard Xie | M2 Competition | 1m02.855s | +0.569s | 12 |
| 7 | Liam Sceats | M2 Competition | 1m02.969s | +0.683s | 12 |
| 8 | Patrick Woods-Toth | Kiwi Motorsport | 1m02.984s | +0.698s | 13 |
| 9 | Jett Bowling | Kiwi Motorsport | 1m02.998s | +0.712s | 13 |
| 10 | Michael Shin | M2 Competition | 1m03.000s | +0.714s | 12 |
| 11 | Elliott Cleary | MTEC Motorsport | 1m03.167s | +0.881s | 12 |
| 12 | Alex Crosbie | Gile Motorsport | 1m03.221s | +0.935s | 12 |
| 13 | Titus Sherlock | Kiwi Motorsport | 1m03.250s | +0.964s | 13 |
| 14 | Kaden Probst | MTEC Motorsport | 1m03.414s | +1.128s | 12 |
| 15 | Landan Matriano Lim | Giles Motorsport | 1m03.442s | +1.156s | 12 |
| 16 | Jake Bonilla | Kiwi Motorsport | 1m03.483s | +1.197s | 13 |
| 17 | Lucas Fecury | MTEC Motorsport | 1m03.543s | +1.257s | 12 |