Nikita Johnson leads M2 1-2-3 in FRegional Oceania practice

Photo: TGR NZ

Nikita Johnson led an M2 Competition 1-2-3 in free practice for the opening Formula Regional Oceania round at Taupo.

All but one of the 17 drivers taking part set their fastest laps in FP1 on Friday morning, with Johnson pipping team-mate Arvid Lindblad to top spot by 0.031 seconds.

Michael Shin was 0.374s behind in third, and Giles Motorsport’s single-seater returnee Will Brown was best of the rest in fourth and 0.468s off the pace. The top 10 were covered by a second, with Giles’ Barrett Wolfe and MTEC Motorsport’s Shawn Rashid both more than two seconds slower than Johnson at the bottom of the timesheet.

Rashid was able to improve in FP2, going second fastest in the session but only rising to 15th overall in the combined classification. Lindblad set a 1m24.428s to deny Rashid top spot by 0.021s, and MTEC’s Josh Pierson trailed by 0.385s in third. Despite the slower pace, the field was close again with M2’s Enzo Yeh in 12th just 0.932s slower than Lindblad.

Johnson and MTEC’s Nicholas Monteiro both completed less than 10 laps, but it was Pierson who did the least running overall. He went third fastest in FP3, as Johnson and Lindblad filled the top two spots again. A 1m23.525s put Johnson in first place, 0.225s aheas of Lindblad and 0.446s clear of Pierson – who was ninth fastest overall.

Brown was 0.504s off Johnson’s pace in fourth, Shin was fifth and M2’s Sebastian Manson was sixth.

Patrick Heuzenroeder did the most running over the three sessions, and ended practice as the fifth fastest driver and the quickest in MTEC’s line-up.

Free practice results