Photo: Bruce Jenkins
Patrick Heuzenroeder pipped Will Brown to top spot in practice for the final Formula Regional Oceania round at Highlands Motorsport Park.
The MTEC Motorsport driver set the fastest lap of practice in FP1, a 1m29.510s putting him 0.187 seconds ahead of team-mate Zack Scoular. Giles Motorsport’s Brown was 0.436s back in third, and just 0.033s clear of Kiwi Motorsport’s Nicolas Stati.
M2 Competition struggled for pace, with Enzo Yeh the team’s best driver in fifth while four of his team-mates – including the main title contenders Nikita Johnson and Arvid Lindblad – were outside of the top 10 and more than 1.2s off the pace.
Heuzenroeder, Scoular, Stati, Yeh, Giles’ Alex Crosbie, Kiwi’s Jett Bowling (who completed the top seven) and Giles’ Barrett Wolfe all set their personal best laptimes in the session and did not improve later in the day.
Brown got within 0.023s of Heuzenroeder’s benchmark by topping FP2 with a 1m29.523s. The ongoing pace-setter was a slim 0.003s slower than him, and M2’s Michael Shin trailed by 0.269s in third.
M2 were more competitive, although three of their drivers were still over a second off the pace, with Lindblad going fifth fastest in the session and Sebastian Manson improving in eighth. They were 0.448s and 0.667s slower than Brown respectively.
Brown, Shin, MTEC’s Shawn Rashid, Lindblad, Manson, MTEC’s Nicholas Monteiro and Kiwi’s james Lawley all set personal bests.
Only three drivers were able to improve in FP3, and just one of them made the top 10 overall. Australian Supercars runner-up Broc Feeney, who is making his single-seater debut with MTEC, led the way with a 1m29.623s that put him third in the combined timesheet and an impressive 0.113s off the day’s fastest lap.
He led his Supercars team-mate Brown by 0.263s in the session, with everyone else over half a second slower than the Australian but with less than a second covering the top 12.
Johnson improved to 1m30.311s to go fifth fastest in FP3 and 14th overall, with team-mate and title rival Matias Zagazeta almost 0.4s slower than him to end practice in 15th.
Free practice results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Patrick Heuzenroeder | MTEC Motorsport | 1m29.510s | 41 | |
| 2 | Will Brown | Giles Motorsport | 1m29.523s | +0.013s | 39 |
| 3 | Broc Feeney | MTEC Motorsport | 1m29.623s | +0.113s | 40 |
| 4 | Zack Scoular | MTEC Motorsport | 1m29.697s | +0.187s | 44 |
| 5 | Michael Shin | M2 Competition | 1m29.792s | +0.282s | 38 |
| 6 | Shawn Rashid | MTEC Motorsport | 1m29.906s | +0.396s | 46 |
| 7 | Arvid Lindblad | M2 Competition | 1m29.971s | +0.461s | 43 |
| 8 | Nicolas Stati | Kiwi Motorsport | 1m29.979s | +0.469s | 42 |
| 9 | Enzo Yeh | M2 Competition | 1m30.118s | +0.608s | 28 |
| 10 | Alex Crosbie | Giles Motorsport | 1m30.188s | +0.678s | 43 |
| 11 | Sebastian Manson | M2 Competition | 1m30.190s | +0.680s | 43 |
| 12 | Jett Bowling | Kiwi Motorsport | 1m30.192s | +0.682s | 45 |
| 13 | Nicholas Monteiro | MTEC Motorsport | 1m30.262s | +0.752s | 43 |
| 14 | Nikita Johnson | M2 Competition | 1m30.311s | +0.801s | 42 |
| 15 | Matias Zagazeta | M2 Competition | 1m30.699s | +1.189s | 43 |
| 16 | James Lawley | Kiwi Motorsport | 1m31.118s | +1.608s | 41 |
| 17 | Barrett Wolfe | Giles Motorsport | 1m31.473s | +1.963s | 44 |