Lawson settles back into Racing Bulls as Lindblad crashes in Baku FP2
Contrasting fortunes for Racing Bulls in Azerbaijan practice
It was an eventful Thursday for Racing Bulls in Baku as Liam Lawson settled back into life with the team after his Red Bull stint, while Arvid Lindblad faced the unforgiving challenge of the street circuit.
The pair enjoyed a solid start to the weekend in FP1, finishing seventh and eighth respectively, but the second session told a different story.
Lawson finds comfort back in his own car
The New Zealander went 12th fastest in FP2 but had a scary moment when the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton suddenly appeared in front of him in the final sector while he was on a hot lap, forcing him to take avoiding action.
"Honestly, it was good. This morning we were quite strong. We definitely didn’t have the same performance in FP2, where everybody else made a decent step, so we have to look at that and try and improve things for tomorrow," Lawson said afterwards.
"But overall, it’s good. It’s nice to be back in my car. It feels like home, but we have some work to do to match those guys."
Lawson added the team will be working overnight to improve in the low speed corners to try and get themselves into the top 10 in Qualifying on Friday.
Lindblad's rookie setback
Meanwhile, rookie driver Lindblad clouted the walls through the castle section 20 minutes into FP2, bringing out the red flag and causing significant damage to the right-hand side of his car.
The British driver radioed his team to apologise, saying he’d just clipped the wall by a millimetre, having also crashed during FP2 in Madrid last time out.
Team Principal Alan Permane said he was not going to punish Lindblad for his mistake:
"It’s not the time to come down on him like a ton of bricks, it’s the time to support him. It was a millimetre. It’s a bit of a shame. It’s certainly not the right time to crash like that, if that was Q3 and he was absolutely going for it, you can understand it. But it’s a little bit of 'the car was feeling good'. I think it’s just a little bit of rookie enthusiasm, but nothing more than that."
Permane added that Lindblad was looking quick on that lap and the team will take that as a positive going into the rest of the event.
Team reaction to Lawson's return
Permane also welcomed Lawson back after a three-race stint covering Isack Hadjar at sister team Red Bull.
"Much as we love Yuki [Tsunoda] — and the whole team does, he’s a very popular figure – it’s good to have Liam back in his car, in the team, working very, very well with Arvid, and those two lift each other up through the weekend."