(Motorsport-Total.com) – For newcomer Arvid Lindblad, his first qualifying in Formula 1 (follow live in the ticker) was a success, as the Brit was able to drive straight into the top 10 in Melbourne and give his team Racing Bulls a double Q3 entry together with teammate Liam Lawson. “It went much better than the team and I expected,” the youngster rejoices after his ninth place.
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“I don’t think two cars in Q3 was really our goal for this weekend. So I think everyone did a fantastic job,” praises Lindblad, who is satisfied with his debut in the premier class.
“It’s been a really good weekend so far. I was extremely excited when I came here. This is something I’ve worked for and dreamed of my whole life,” he says. “So making my debut is extremely cool. And that it went so well today far exceeds my expectations. I’m just really looking forward to the race tomorrow.”
Yet there could have been even more for the 18-year-old, as he was ahead of his more experienced teammate Lawson in both Q1 and Q2, but on the decisive lap Lindblad reported some problems with his gear shifts and seemed to lose some performance as a result.
This became apparent in the time, which at 1.2 seconds behind his teammate was clearly the slowest in the final segment. Against the four top teams, however, the Racing Bulls had little chance of a better placement in Q3 anyway.
Scary moment with Bortoleto
The only other midfield candidate in Q3 was Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto, who was unable to compete in the session at all due to a technical problem. Previously, there had been a tricky scene between him and the two Racing Bulls.
Bortoleto had suddenly lost power after Q2 and drove very slowly into the pit lane. “In the middle of the lap I suddenly lost gears and couldn’t make it back to the pits,” the Brazilian himself describes. Lawson was also driving at a crawl behind him when Lindblad came around the blind corner of the pit entry at full speed.
Only due to a quick reaction was he able to avoid his teammate there and rush past him with locked wheels. “That was a bit of a scary moment,” Lindblad breathes a sigh of relief and speaks of “unnecessary stress” on Sky.
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“We will look at it closely within the team – whether I did something wrong or whether something went wrong in the communication,” he says. “But anyway, there’s no point in worrying about it now. In the end, everything went well, fortunately. We’ll just see if we can do it differently next time.”
Straightforward qualifying
Bottom line, it’s a good result for Red Bull’s small sister team. “Two cars in Q3 and grid positions eight and nine prove that we have two fast drivers and an impressive car with the VCARB 03,” praises technical director Tim Goss.
“We came to Melbourne with a good understanding of the ideal set-up window. Thanks to some additional aerodynamic upgrades, we were able to increase the pace and balance of the car once again,” he praises.
“The car was in the right working window from the start, which we owe to the excellent preparation of our engineering team. On this basis, we only had to do a little fine-tuning in the practice sessions before qualifying.”
Advancing in Q1 was therefore “relatively straightforward,” as he says. “We nevertheless took the opportunity to run two sets of fresh tires to ensure we were as well prepared as possible for Q2, which was to be our main battlefield.”
There, both drivers then put in “fantastic laps” to move into the top 10. From the perspective of the young bulls, the margin was just under one and a half tenths of a second. “In Q3 we ran on used soft tires – that was a purely strategic decision to improve our chances for Sunday’s race,” said Goss.
“Liam delivered another great lap, while Arvid unfortunately had a minor vehicle control issue that cost him significant performance.”
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