With rain in the Invercargill region potentially a real threat to qualifying on Saturday, drivers and teams were given the nod that the third and final session of the day could be used to form the race 1 grid – so all effectively went out on simulated qualifying runs and added new tyres late in the session.
Most spent the early laps on older tyres as the fuel loads dropped, and it was M2 Competition’s Freddie Slater and Ugo Ugochukwu who set the early pace in the first half of the session. But Jin Nakamura handled the pressure best of all for Hitech, clocking a 53.749-second lap around the short, compact 2.57km circuit.
Most spent the early laps on older tyres as the fuel loads dropped, and it was M2 Competition’s Freddie Slater and Ugo Ugochukwu who set the early pace in the first half of the session. But Nakamura handled the pressure best of all for Hitech, clocking a 53.749-second lap around the short, compact 2.57km circuit.
Slater eventually finished second, and Hitech’s Kanato Le third. Seb Manson was quick in the final session too, ahead of Ugochukwu and Ernesto Rivera, who had enjoyed a strong day for M2 Competition.
The extra pressure of the final session seemed to suit the two-time world rally champ Kalle Rovanperä well too, as he leapt to sixth fastest time with less than five minutes remaining in the session – the three-tenths gap to the fastest time being the closest the Finn has been to the top of the timesheets. He went faster, too, but so did other drivers, and he ended the session tenth.
The first session started on a wet track, but there was no rain, and it dried progressively through the session. Two red flags slowed the session and allowed some of the runners to get out on slick towards the end, but it was still slippery, and times were consequently a few seconds off Thursday’s collective testing times.
Turn one claimed Ryan Wood and Trevor LaTourette, and brought out the red flag early, but there was no contact between the two, Wood effectively going off in sympathy as LaTourette spun in front of him. Both cars were recovered without damage, and indeed Wood was able to resume later in the session.
Rivera also went off at turn one late in the session and brought out the red flag and an early end to the session itself – again with no damage.
Slater looked fully committed in the challenging conditions, as most teams opted for higher downforce settings in the conditions. Slater’s M2 Competition team was one of those. In the end, it was teammate Ernesto Rivera who was second fastest in the session, ahead of Hitech’s Fionn McLaughlin, who looked like he was thoroughly enjoying the tricky and changeable track conditions.
Championship leader Ugochukwu was there yet again with the fourth fastest time, while Louis Sharp had a solid session for mtec Motorsport. Further back, Nolan Allaer had looked very strong in the wettest of the session for Giles Motorsport, as had his team mate, Jack Taylor.
The times were much quicker in the second session, and again it was close, with just nine-tenths separating first from seventeenth on the time sheets.
Sharp continued building on his Thursday form with another blistering lap under the 54-second mark, but he was just four one-hundredths faster than Hitech’s Nakamura and mtec Motorsport’s Zac Scoular, with Ugochukwu and Slater next up with times just over the 54-second mark. It would still stand as one of the fastest laps of the day, but he could only manage eleventh fastest in the third session.
Yuanpu Cui was a couple of tenths down on the fast five in sixth in that second session, while IndyNXT racer Nolan Allaer continued to impress with his speed against much younger talent with a fine seventh fastest for Giles Motorsport.
It was a much more challenging day for Ryan Wood than he had hoped. His morning off cost him time, and he never got back on the ultimate pace for the rest of the day.
He ended the final session with the sixteenth fastest time, so he will have plenty of work to do to keep up the momentum of his Taupo feature race win last weekend.
Saturday – with hopefully better weather than predicted – will bring qualifying and the first two of four races this weekend.
Header Image: Bruce Jenkins
