Sharp fastest in FRegional Oceania’s pre-season test running

Photo: TGR NZ

MTEC Motorsport’s Louis Sharp was fastest in Formula Regional Oceania’s sole pre-season test action at Hampton Downs on Thursday.

The day was split into two sessions, and in the first Sharp set a 1m30.067s in the first half of his run plan to top the timesheet.

Hitech GP’s Jin Nakamura got within 0.043 seconds of his benchmark, and on his penultimate lap M2 Competition’s Ugo Ugochukwu lapped 0.19s shy of Sharp’s pace.

MTEC’s single-seater newcomer Ryan Wood was an impressive fourth fastest, only 0.245s slower than his team-mate, and M2’s Freddie Slater completed the top five.

A second covered the top 12, with Hitech’s Fionn McLaughlin only completing three laps but still managing to go 11th fastest. His team-mate and two-time World Rally champion Kalle Rovanpera was the only other driver to not record 10 laptimes, and he ended the session 1.314s off the pace in 15th.

Both improved their pace in session two, along with M2’s Ernesto Rivera, Giles Motorsport’s Jack Taylor, Kiwi Motorsport’s Cooper Shipman and HMD Motorsports with TJ Speed duo Cadi Baptista and Trevor LaTourrette.

McLaughlin and Shipman were the only ones to improve their placing in the test’s overall classification, rising to fifth and 16th respectively.

Most drivers got faster as session two went on, with many personal bests set late in run plans. A 1m30.127s on his penultimate lap put Nakamura on top, 0.338s ahead of McLaughlin who also made a pace gain one lap before ending his day.

Wood trailed by 0.408s in third, with Hitech’s Kanato Le and Sharp next up. Slater’s quickest lap of the session came on lap six of 16, and left him down in seventh place. This time the top 10 was split by 0.728s, with everyone else over a second off Nakamura’s pace. Rovanpera was 13th, 1.134s back.

Test results