Zagazeta pips Lindblad to FRegional Oceania pole by 0.019s

Photo: Toyota Gazoo Racing NZ

Matias Zagazeta pipped Arvid Lindblad to pole by 0.019 seconds in Formula Regional Oceania’s second qualifying session at Teretonga.

Kiwi Motorsport’s Nicolas Stati led the way after the first laps, then Giles Motorsport’s Tommy Smith held first place after the second laps were completed.

He was eventually demoted from provisional pole five minutes in, as M2 Competition’s Nikita Johnson set a 55.924s on his fourth lap. His team-mate Enzo Yeh immediately beat it by 0.015 seconds, then Lindblad lowered the pace to 55.43s before Zagazeta posted a 55.069s.

Manson briefly made it an all-M2 top five as he then broke into the 54s, before Smith and then Pierson improved to hold fourth and soon Johnson was down in eighth.

Lindblad set a 54.947s next time by, a benchmark smashed by Zagazeta with a 54.12s. Johnson, Manson, Smith, M2’s Michael Shin, Pierson, MTEC’s Nicholas Monteiro and Yeh all set sub-55s laps too, then sub-54s arrived on drivers’ sixth laps.

Zagazeta recorded a 53.618s, making him one thousandth of a second faster than Lindblad, with Johnson setting a 53.774s, Shin posting a 53.892s and Manson making an M2 domination again with a 53.995s.

Johnson briefly moved to the top with his seventh lap, a 53.517s, but Lindblad improved to 53.293s and Zagazeta got marginally quicker with a 53.579s that left him third.

There were improvers further down the order next time around, as Smith jumped to fourth by posting a 53.825s. Manson and then Pierson held sixth place, and MTEC’s Patrick Heuzenroeder slotted into eighth with his sixth lap since he had left the pits after everyone else. He gained another spot on his next tour, and then the fight for pole scaled up again with five minutes to go.

Zagazeta set a 53.463s and then a 53.447s to get within 0.154s of Lindblad’s pace, and Shin improved to 53.713s in fourth ahead of Pierson.

With just over two-and-a-half minutes to go there was change at the top once more, as Zagazeta posted a 53.274s on his 12 lap. Lindblad had no response, while Shin and Manson found more pace in fourth and fifth.

Heuzenroeder moved up to fifth with his 10th lap, and with 90s left on the clock there a yo-yo battle between Smith and Pierson to be seventh fastest. Smith moved ahead of Manson by matching Heuzenroeder’s pace with less than 40s to go, while Pierson also improved but remained in eighth.

MTEC’s Zack Scoular rose to ninth on the timesheet at the very end, meaning the top 10 was split by less than half a second.

Qualifying results