‘I was running P4 on merit’ – Lindblad highlights positives after FP2 crash in Spain

Arvid Lindblad has reflected on the error that brought his FP2 at the Madring to an early close, with the Racing Bulls driver accepting that it was “a bit of a shame” in an otherwise impressive session.

The Spanish Grand Prix represents a unique opportunity for this season’s sole rookie, as the new venue means that he isn’t the only one driving the circuit for the first time.

Lindblad seemed to take the challenge in his stride and finished P7 in the opening session before improving in FP2, setting purple sectors on his way to claim P4 on the timesheets.

However, his mission to cut his time down further unravelled when he lost the car on the entry to Turn 13 and hit the wall, causing a red flag that resulted in the disruption of everyone’s run plans.

“In the end, it’s not an easy track so we are all pushing to find the limits, it is new for all of us and I just made a bit of a mistake and overdid it a little bit in Turn 13,” Lindblad said.

“A bit of a shame, obviously I apologise to the mechanics and the team because it is a bit of extra work for them unfortunately tonight.

“But I think looking at the big picture, it has been a good day. We are very fast, I was running P4 on merit. I was only two tenths from P1 which is really strong. A lot of confidence in the team going into tomorrow. I am just focused on resetting, trying to block it out and take all the good learnings.

“No one got a long run, so I didn’t lose too much. I don’t know how much they did, maybe four or five laps, so no one got a proper long run. I didn’t get any long run but the loss is not massive because no one has great understanding for Sunday.

“I was at the limit, I was doing a good job so I am happy about that. For sure the grip is going to continue to increase tomorrow as it does on any street circuit.

“[We] just need to go with that, reset, the car is fast. We know Qualifying is the most important thing here and we showed good pace in that so [I’m] happy.”

Alan Permane, Team Principal at Racing Bulls, was similarly content to shift attention away from the error and instead focus on the squad’s encouraging performance.

Yuki Tsunoda, stepping in for Liam Lawson for a third successive round, delivered an eye-catching result of P8 in FP2, albeit around eight tenths adrift of his team mate.

Permane summarised: “If we take the crash out of it, it has been an absolutely excellent day, it really, really has. The car has been quick, we started out with a decent car, made some changes from FP1 to FP2 and really improved it.

“It looks properly fast, the car, certainly top 10, maybe even top seven Qualifying car. Yuki did not have the easiest of runs but he is still up there in the top 10, and in front of all our main competitors, so a really decent day.

“I think we are pretty happy where we are, there might be a little bit of fine tuning ahead of FP3 but I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t be confident of getting both cars in Q3.”