The
Red Bull Racing rookie finished eighth in Melbourne, becoming
the fourth youngest debutant in the history of the
sport but the first to score so many points on his
debut.
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A
spectacular start
The Briton experienced a particularly intense start
to the race. Starting ninth on the grid,
he made a remarkable getaway that allowed him to find himself
briefly third from the first lap, in a lively start where
the two
Mercedes lost the front-row advantage to
Charles Leclerc.
In the final corners of the
first lap, Lindblad found himself in the heart of a tight struggle
with
Isack Hadjar and
Lewis Hamilton, before finally yielding to the
Ferrari in turn 15. At the end of the race, he also had to
defend his position against
Oliver Bearman, but the
Haas F1 Team driver finally took the advantage.
A
debut beyond expectations
Despite this lost battle,
the eighth place remains a remarkable result for a first
Grand Prix: « Honestly, I am almost speechless. It was
a pretty crazy race. Coming into this weekend, scoring points
wasn’t in the expectations. After yesterday, I had a bit of hope,
but I am extremely happy. »
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Lindblad also wanted to
thank the entire technical project behind his car,
notably
Red Bull Powertrains and
Ford Motor Company, partners in the development of the
power unit: « I am extremely grateful to
everyone in the team, at RBPT and at Ford, for
giving me the package to fight. »
An
unreal moment against Hamilton
For the young driver, the
race took on an even more special dimension when
he found himself wheel-to-wheel with Hamilton, one of his
childhood heroes: « I fell in love with this sport watching
Lewis on television. He was a big reason why I
wanted to be here today. It was pretty crazy to race
against him today and there were many moments where I
pinched myself to believe it. »
But despite this respect,
Lindblad ensures that he does not intend to be shy against
experienced drivers: « I have an enormous amount of respect for the
more experienced drivers in the sport who have done an
incredible job, but I’m not going to just roll over and
give them the place. I am here to fight and when I am
in the car, I am a ruthless competitor. I am going to
take every inch I can get. »
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