Arvid Lindblad has stated he and Oscar Piastri “were in a genuine fight” in the closing stages of the Mexico City Grand Prix, with the Racing Bulls driver ultimately crashing out of the race after a collision.
Lindblad had circulated in the points for much of Sunday’s 71-lap race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, with the F1 rookie jumping ahead of Piastri for P7 after a mid-race restart following a red flag.
The pair battled over several laps, with Piastri eventually moving to the outside of Lindblad into Turn 1 on Lap 58, the McLaren driver making contact with the Racing Bulls car ahead.
The contact on the left-rear sent Lindblad into the air and crashing into the wall on the exit of Turn 2, with Piastri handed a 10-second penalty post-race for the incident.
“I don’t want to properly comment on it until I’ve seen all the footage,” said Lindblad immediately afterwards.
“But in the end, the pace was good, we were in a genuine fight with him. He was stuck behind me for over 10 laps. I was committed to fighting for that position and I wasn’t just going to let him drive around the outside of me easily.”
Despite failing to score for the third race in succession, Lindblad was pleased with his general performance over the weekend having lost confidence over the summer following a spate of crashes.
“Being completely honest, I lost a bit my rhythm after Madrid, Baku where I had the two crashes,” he said.
“I wasn’t just as confident to hustle the car as much and put it on the limit. I think I can kind of do okay in Qualifying but in the race it was showing more and just happy this weekend I felt more like myself.
“I think the race pace was really good, which has been a weakness of mine for the last few races, so just happy to be back in my mojo again and looking forward to Brazil.”
Team mate Liam Lawson was able to finish P10 on-the-road having staretd from the pit lane after being disqualified in Qualifying for a technical infringement.
But the New Zealander was promoted up to seventh after Piastri’s penalty, plus a further two positions at the expense of Alpine drivers Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly.
“It was a tough race. The first part was a big struggle for us, we missed the VSC, didn’t box, and then we boxed for our second stop the lap before the Safety Car, so it was just really unlucky and lost a lot of race time,” said Lawson.
“Then obviously the red flag helped us, we got a restart from P15 and then I just tried to attack as much as possible. It’s a good recovery for us.”
