Lindblad on top in FRegional Oceania practice at Manfeild

Photo: Bruce Jenkins

Arvid Lindblad was fastest in practice for the third round of the Formula Regional Oceania season at Manfeild on Friday.

There were three half-hour sessions, and in FP1 points leader Lindblad was the pacesetter. He managed to break the 1m04s barrier eight times, with his quickest lap coming five minutes from the end.

The M2 Competition driver had already been on top for a prolonged period with an early 1m03.587s benchmark, and he beat that by 0.007 seconds with his new personal best. In the end he set three laps that were good enough to put him P1 on the timesheet, with his closest rival Nicolas Stati leaving it until his last lap at the end to set a 1m03.753s.

Less than a tenth of a second behind the Kiwi Motorsport driver was Tommy Smith, who is replacing Australian Supercars champion Will Brown at Giles Motorsport for this round and the next. The 22-year-old Australian did three of the five rounds last season and claimed one podium, enough to put him eighth in the standings.

MTEC Motorsport duo Josh Pierson and Patrick Heuzenreoder were split by 0.01s in fourth and fifth, then Giles’ Alex Crosbie was the last of the drivers to lap sub-1m04s. The top 15 were covered by just 0.62s, and everyone ended up setting their fastest laps in FP1.

Stati was quickest in FP2, setting a 1m03.958s to pip Lindblad by 0.059s. M2’s Matias Zagazeta was 0.266s back in third, with a 0.004s gap to Smith and with Crosbie only a further 0.029s behind in fifth. This time 0.62s covered the top 13, and only Giles’ Barrett Wolfe was more than a second off the pace.

FP3 was the slowest session, and Stati was on top again. A 1m04.019s on his final lap put him 0.065s ahead of Smith, with Heuzenroeder and Crosbie 0.102s and 0.187s back. The gaps were also more spread out, with Lindblad down in 12th and 0.651s slower than Stati.

Free practice results