Zagazeta fastest in super tight FRegional Oceania practice at Teretonga

Photo: Bruce Jenkins

M2 Competition’s Matias Zagazeta set the pace in practice for round four of the Formula Regional Oceania season at Teretonga.

There were three sessions, and every driver set their fastest lap in FP3 where 0.755 seconds covered the whole field and less than 0.2s split the top 12 on pace.

Points leader Arvid Lindblad led the way in FP1, setting a 54.423s. Five drivers were within 0.1s of him, with M2 team-mate Nikita Johnson the closest as he trailed by just 0.029s. Zagazeta was a further 0.023s behind, MTEC Motorsport’s Patrick Heuzenroeder was 0.067s off the top in fourth and a tiny 0.002s split M2’s Enzo Yeh and MTEC’s Zack Scoular in fifth and sixth.

A further four drivers were within a third of a second of Lindblad, and Kiwi Motorsport’s James Lawley was the only one to trail by over a second.

Some drivers were able to improve in FP2, including Giles Motorsport’s Tommy Smith who shot to the top with a 54.28s lap. He pipped Lindblad by 0.024s, with Johnson, Kiwi’s Jett Bowling and Zagazeta all over 0.2s behind.

All 17 drivers lapped sub-55s in FP3, and Zagazeta posted a new 54.086s benchmark. Johnson was second fastest, 0.046s slower than Zagazeta and 0.025s quicker than Scoular in third. Lindblad and MTEC’s Josh Pierson were 0.083s and 0.09s off the top and Smith was shuffled down to sixth despite improving to 54.192s.

Bowling, team-mate Nicolas Stati, Yeh and M2’s Michael Shin completed the top 10. Giles’ Barrett Wolfe completed 83 laps, the most of anyone, but was slowest.

Free practice results