Pace eases pain of Madrid crash in practice for Lindblad: ‘We were P4 on merit’

Arvid Lindblad is focusing on the strong pace he showed in second practice rather than the crash that ended his day.

The Racing Bulls driver was fourth quickest after the first qualifying simulations on Friday afternoon, but on a second attempt he lost control at Turn 15 and hit the barrier side-on. Admitting the damage was extensive, Lindblad says he wants to make sure the incident doesn’t knock his confidence after such a competitive start to the weekend.

“It looked quite bad, but actually the impact was not very hard,” Lindblad said. “Charles [Leclerc] did it in much more spectacular fashion in Monza. There's a bit of damage. It's a good amount – quite a lot but nothing that's not repairable. I just apologize to the engineers, but especially the mechanics, because they've got a bit of extra work tonight, unfortunately.

“I think it's positive [overall]. In the end, the speed was good. We were P4 on merit. Every lap we did in FP2 we were fast, so that's the most important thing. We know that qualifying is the more important thing on this track, so we're good there.”

He didn't think the loss of track time will be much of a hindrance either.

“Yes, we missed a little bit of the long run, but honestly, no one got a proper long run," Lindblad said. “I think we're in a decent place for tomorrow. I'm just going to focus on resetting tonight. I'm trying to block out what happened and just take the good learnings from today.”

Lindblad also received a show of support from his team principal Alan Permane, who agreed the pace showed outweighed the damage caused by the rookie’s crash.

“I think the damaged car, it's not really mixed emotions – I'd much rather be in fourth place with a damaged car than 18th place with a car with four wheels on,” Permane said. “It's not ideal of course, and we certainly can't do that every weekend, but we can accept that.

“There's no doubt the car is quick, very quick – it's properly P4-paced today, and I don't say it'll be P4-paced tomorrow afternoon, but it'll be right up there, I think.”

Despite his team becoming the first to suffer significant damage at the Madring, the Racing Bulls chief says he is a fan of Formula 1’s newest venue.

“It's great; I think it's a very, very impressive facility,” Permane said. “It doesn't feel like a new street track they've just sort of slapped down in a car park, it really feels like they've taken some time and effort and put together a really interesting circuit. So I’m really impressed.”