Racing Bulls team principal Alan Permane believes the VCARB 03 possesses genuine Q3 pace at the inaugural Spanish Grand Prix despite a late practice crash.
Arvid Lindblad secured fourth place during Friday’s second practice session. The British rookie then lost the rear of his car exiting La Monumental and struck the Turn 13 barriers. He had already impressed by finishing seventh in the opening session at the new Madrid street circuit.
Confident Recovery After Late Impact
Lindblad reported he was physically unhurt and played down the severity of the shunt. Speaking to PlanetF1, the driver explained the incident looked worse than reality. He joked that “Charles [Leclerc] did it in much more spectacular fashion in Monza!”
He did, however, issue an apology to his garage crew for the overnight repair work.
Setup Suited To Madrid Kerbs
The squad remains highly optimistic about their single-lap potential. The chassis has shown strong compliance over the aggressive kerbs in the opening sector. As reported by motorsport.com, Permane called Friday an “excellent day” for the garage.
Yuki Tsunoda also ended the second session inside the top ten, despite battling power steering problems. Permane told formula1.com that the squad only needs minor adjustments before qualifying.
“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,” he confirmed.
The team must now repair the damaged chassis before Saturday morning practice.
