Nakamura fastest, Rivera takes pole in wet FRegional Oceania qualifying

Photo: TGR NZ / Joel Hanks

Ernesto Rivera claimed pole position for the first Formula Regional Oceania race at Teretonga last week in a dramatic qualifying session.

Drivers got used to the short circuit in pre-event testing on Thursday, with the benchmark laptime being a 54.05s from points leader Ugo Ugochukwu. He edged M2 Competition team-mate Slater by 0.097 seconds, and Hitech GP’s Jin Nakamura was 0.159s behind in third. Under half a second covered the top 13.

Free practice followed on Friday, and Nakamura set the pace. FP3 was the quickest, despite two red flag interruptions, and Nakamura’s 53.749s lap put him 0.112s ahead of MTEC Motorsport’s Louis Sharp.

He had a 0.216s gap to MTEC’s Zack Scoular in third, and 0.222s to Slater in fourth. Ugochukwu was fifth, 0.296s behind.

Saturday began with qualifying one, and three red flag stoppages in soaking wet conditions meant almost every driver’s fastest lap came on their second tour of the circuit.

Hitech’s Fionn McLaughlin was an early spinner, at which point Kiwi Motorsport’s Yevan David was atop the times. He was demoted to second by a 1m06.634s from Giles Motorsport’s Jack Taylor, whose team-mate Nolan Allaer set a 1m06.464s a few moments later.

Nakamura quickly bettered the pair with a 1m05.17s, which M2’s Rivera lapped 0.187s shy of. Slater was the only other driver within a second before qualifying was stopped with just under 12 minutes remaining due to Allaer crashing out.

It only took 24s after qualifying restarted for McLaughlin to fly off at high speed. After several spins he reached the gravel and got beached, prompting another stoppage before any outlaps were completed.

The session clock continued during this red flag period due to schedule constraints, and eight minutes were left when qualifying next restarted.

Some drivers were brave enough to go side-by-side in the torrential rain and low visibility conditions, and Nakamura went off through the long turn one on his first flying lap after leaving the pits.

That not only led to the session ending early, but guaranteed he would not be outpaced. However he did not claim race one pole, as his and Allaer’s punishment for triggering red flags were three-place grid penalties.

Rivera therefore claimed pole, 0.656s ahead of Slater. McLaughlin was fourth fastest, but a penalty of his own put him 10th on the grid, meaning World Rally champion Kalle Rovanpera (Hitech) lined up third after being 1.159s off Rivera’s pace in sixth.

Kanato Le (Hitech) and Taylor were promoted from seventh and eighth to fifth and sixth, with Allaer demoted from fifth to seventh and sharing row four with Kiwi’s Cooper Shipman.

MTEC’s Ryan Wood qualified ninth after all penalties were applied, and Ugochukwu was 4.383s off Nakamura’s benchmark down in 12th place.

Title outsider Sharp fared worse, not getting a flying lap in at all due to his pitlane position and qualifying 17th out of 18.

Qualifying 1 results