Red Bull star clinches win
A rising star from Red Bull – Britain’s Arvid Lindblad – showed why he’s tipped for Formula 1 after a dominant drive in the feature race of the first round of the Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship.
One day shy of 51 years since Denny Hulme’s unexpected win in the Argentine Grand Prix and took home the trophy that’s competed for every year at Taupo in the FR Oceania, the only Kiwi F1 world champion would surely have given a nod of approval to Lindblad’s performance.
After race-two winner Matias Zagazeta made a quicker getaway, M2 Competition’s pole-sitter Lindblad kept his cool and repeated the move on his team-mate he had tried around the outside of the leader at turn one at the start of Saturday’s race.
This time, as the Taupo crowd held its breath, he made it stick and surged into a lead he would never lose.
Lindblad, pictured, was quickly into his stride and a series of fast early laps gave him a lead over Zagazeta. He never looked back and stormed away to a five-second margin over his nearest rival at the chequered flag.
“I made my life difficult at the start,” says Lindblad. “It’s not easy to start on the inside here as it’s a bit dirtier and I didn’t do a great start.
“I was committed when I saw I had lost the lead that I had to get it back at turn one. I’m very happy that from there I was able to control the race.
“I could feel quickly that the thermal degradation was a lot higher worse in this race than in the previous two, and the guys behind were close, but after four or five laps I managed to edge away.”
Zagazeta gave Peru its first victory in the single-seater championship with a fine drive in race two at Taupo.
The 21-year-old M2 Competition driver made a great start on old tyres to leap up from fourth on the grid and take the lead around turn one.
From that moment, it was eyes forward for the next 18 laps as team-mate Enzo Yeh – starting on fresher tyres – pressured him all the way.
It was all academic for Yeh, however, as a five-second penalty for creeping at the start demoted the Chinese Taipei driver to fourth.
Behind the lead two, US racer Josh Pierson managed to hold off a charging Lindblad against the odds for the next spot on the podium.
The race win was well-deserved for Zagazeta, a three-time Peruvian national karting champion who is firmly on the international single-seater radar having been a podium finisher in the FIA F3 Championship in 2024.
And Kiwi Zack Scoular, 17, put his name firmly among New Zealand’s rising stars with a near-perfect performance at Taupo to win the first race of the weekend and series.
All the more remarkable was the fact it was the Dubai-based driver’s home debut after years of learning the racing ropes elsewhere in the world.
Starting from pole position for Mtec Motorsport, he made the perfect start to have a couple of car lengths on fellow front-row starter – and current Aussie Supercars champion – Will Brown at the first corner.
However, Scoular settled in perfectly and never lost his composure or pace during the race, adding the win and fastest lap to his pole to make it a perfect start.
The championship makes a quick dash to Hampton Downs for the second round next weekend. Testing begins on January 16 at the challenging north Waikato circuit.
