Lindblad completed his first full weekend as an F1 driver at the Australian Grand Prix. The rookie showed strong potential in his junior career, and this seems to have translated well, into F1. At the start of the race, the Briton went from ninth place on the grid, (immediately pushed up to eighth after Oscar Piastri crashed on an installation lap) to challenging Hamilton at Turns 3 and 4 for third place.

The rookie was initially outqualified by team-mate, Liam Lawson, but Lindblad made quick work of dispersing Lawson from his sight. After an impressive start, the true pace of the VCARB 03 started to set in.

Eventually, a chasing Max Verstappen made his way past Lindblad after a dicey pit lane incident, where the Dutchman was forced to brake hard, in order to avoid a collision with the rookie.

Lindblad then went on to battle against Oliver Bearman for a decent portion of the race, the pair of them trading places multiple times. Eventually, Lindblad would be forced to settle for an eighth place finish, beating Gabriele Bortoleto to the chequered flag in Audi's first F1 race.

After his first ever F1 race, Lindblad stated: "It feels very special. I mean, I wasn't expecting this result. I think points on debut is really good, especially, you know, from where we were in Bahrain. I don't think I've really made any mistakes this weekend, I think I've maximised the car in almost every session."

Speaking about his battle with Hamilton and a series of other drivers, he said: "Yeah, that was pretty cool. I mean, I don't think saying just points on debut really summarises that race. I mean, I think I was P3 at one point on lap one, which is pretty nuts to think about sharing the track, battling with Lewis, Max, Lando and all these guys. It's very special. Yeah, I was having a lot of fun out there."

Despite a strong eighth place finish, Lindblad was quick to address his expectations for the rest of the season, saying: "I don't know. I think this track is very unique with its energy demands and I think that's going to be once more of a thing this year than it has been in the past."

He added: "Because of the new engine, every track has different characteristics which I think will expose different weaknesses or strengths of the power unit. So to answer your question, I think there will be much more fluctuation between the teams. each weekend, so there's no point speculating. I'm just going to now try and enjoy the moment, look with the team to see what I could have done better, and then focus on China."

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