Lindblad denies Johnson by tiny margin in wet FRegional Oceania Q2

Photo: Bruce Jenkins

Arvid Lindblad denied M2 Competition team-mate Nikita Johnson by a tiny margin in the fight to be fastest in Formula Regional Oceania’s wet second qualifying session at Manfeild.

Lindblad had the advantage over Johnson through their first five laps, then he opted for a cooldown lap while Johnson improved to 1m08.807s. That put him on provisional pole by 0.022 seconds ahead of MTEC Motorsport’s Patrick Heuzenroeder, who had been on top for the preceding two laps.

Heuzenroeder had a slower lap next time by, and Johnson found more pace. He set a 1m08.555s, but it was not enough for pole as Lindblad was 0.002 faster to claim his fifth pole from six attempts this season.

The top two both then set 1m08.6s, unable to improve, and Heuzenroeder was demoted to fourth by a 1m08.799s from M2’s Sebastian Manson.

Matias Zagazeta and Enzo Yeh made it five M2 drivers in the top six, although Yeh was 0.645s off pole while his team-mate was 0.348s slower than Lindblad.

Giles Motorsport’s series returnee Tommy Smith was just pipped to sixth by Yeh, with MTEC’s Zack Scoular and M2’s Michael Shin also closely matched in eighth and ninth. Scoular was one of only two drivers to improve after their eighth lap on track, the other being MTEC’s Josh Pierson who had an unerwhelming session and could only qualify 10th.

Everyone else was more than a second off the pace, and 14th down to 17th place were two seconds slower than Lindblad around the short lap as track conditions meant slower laptimes for all.

Qualifying results