Lindblad lands another FRegional Oceania pole in red-flagged session

Photo: Bruce Jenkins / TGR NZ

Arvid Lindblad will start on pole for the Dorothy Smith Memorial Trophy after setting the pace in Formula Regional Oceania’s second qualifying session at Hampton Downs.

Being first out of the pitlane proved beneficial for MTEC Motorsport pair Zack Scoular and Josh Pierson once again with the very first laps completed, then Giles Motorsport’s Will Brown moved to the top ahead of M2 Competition’s Enzo Yeh and Matias Zagazeta.

Scoular was back on top next time by, setting a 1m29.775s to build a gap of over two seconds to M2’s Michael Shin. MTEC’s Nicholas Monteiro was third, with the next two drivers setting 1m31s.

A 1m28.940s from Scoular followed, and his pace advantage was slashed to 0.193 seconds by M2’s Lindblad. Heuzenroeder and Pierson were third and fourth, with the top 10 now covered by 0.822s.

Lindblad put himself on provisional pole with his fourth flying lap, posting a 1m28.149s that put him 0.456s ahead of Pierson. Brown, Heuzenroeder, Shin and Scoular all set 1m28.8s laps, and Zagazeta dropped to 10th by failing to improve.

On his next lap, Lindblad broke into the 1m27s as Johnson jumped from seventh to second. However he was 0.444s off the top, with Scoular the only other driver within half a second of Lindblad.

With just under four minutes to go, Brown and Lindblad committed to cooldown laps while Scoular had another shot at pole and moved up to second, 0.013s ahead of Pierson and 0.345s behind the points leader. Lindblad’s pole position was already secured, but with a minute left on the clock he improved to 1m27.746s to make it undeniable while Scoular and Pierson lapped in the 1m28.1s.

Zagazeta rose to fourth with a 1m28.270s, but then struck trouble that led to red flags waving with 30s left of the scheduled session time and bringing it to an early end.

Johnson dropped to fifth as he has failed to improve, Brown ended qualifying in sixth and MTEC’s Shawn Rashid was seventh.

Qualifying results