‘I knew coming into the session we were fast’ – Lindblad ‘extremely happy’ with P9 in first F1 Qualifying

Arvid Lindblad was left “extremely happy” after securing P9 in his first-ever F1 Qualifying session, with the rookie admitting that he “knew coming into the session that we were fast” as both Racing Bulls cars reached the top 10 in Australia.

After catching the eye with his performance during Friday’s running at the Albert Park Circuit, Lindblad again appeared in good form on Saturday and progressed through to the final segment of Qualifying, where he set the ninth-quickest lap just behind team mate Liam Lawson in eighth.

When it was put to him afterwards that he must be feeling ecstatic with how his debut Qualifying had gone, the Briton answered: “Yeah, it was really good. I think all weekend we’ve been quite competitive.

“I was trying to not get too excited after yesterday, because we didn’t know if things were going to change or if other teams had more in the pocket or whatnot. But I kind of knew coming into the session that we were fast, and I just needed to focus on myself and do my job and we could be competitive.

“The team have done a phenomenal job. It’s really impressive to have two cars in Q3, especially from where we were in Bahrain – I think it was much more than [mine] and the team’s expectations, so I’m extremely happy and just can’t wait for tomorrow.”

There was one dramatic moment for Lindblad at the end of Q2 when he encountered the slow-moving cars of Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto and team mate Lawson ahead of him at the pit entry, Bortoleto having suffered an issue on his car that left him unable to participate in Q3.

“It was a bit scary,” the 18-year-old conceded. “I’ll review with the team, see if there was anything that I did wrong or something that was missing, but thankfully we got away with that unscathed.”

On the other side of the Racing Bulls garage, Lawson was similarly pleased with the outcome of Qualifying, which he admitted was perhaps better than what he and the team had anticipated.

“I think honestly, where we thought we’d be this weekend was probably not here so, yeah, pretty happy with that,” the New Zealander explained.

“I think the start of Quali for me was quite rough honestly, so finally sort of pieced it together towards the end, but it was quite tricky from where I sat.

“It was actually hard to put a lap together – I kept locking up, making mistakes, and we had quite a quick car so it was a little bit unnecessary, to be honest, from my side, but towards the end it got more together.

“We saved a new set [of tyres] for tomorrow as well, which is positive – we didn’t run a new set in Q3 as everybody else around us was already out.

“It’s great to go into tomorrow with a new set of softs, and two cars in Q3 is honestly very, very positive.

"So yeah, happy with the day – obviously tomorrow’s a long race, and these cars – so far, when they’re new like this – aren’t always the most reliable, so we’ll see.”