Red Bull junior Arvid Lindblad takes another Macau win in F4 main race

Photo: Macau GP Organising Committee

Red Bull junior Arvid Lindblad made it two wins from starts in Formula 4 South East Asia’s non-championship round in Macau.

The start of Sunday’s main F4 race was delayed by 29 minutes, although drivers had time to do three laps of the track before they took their spot on the grid.

After facing wet conditions in the morning’s qualification race, the track was completely dry although there some patches of dust laid down where there had been fluid. Several drivers ran into one of those on the run to Lisboa for the first time, as poleman Arvid Lindblad swept left and right trying to break the tow.

His Theodore Racing team-mate Freddie Slater initially tucked in after starting alongside him on the front row, but then drew alongside Lindblad and tried to pass him around the outside into the first braking zone of Lisboa.

Lindblad locked up and that prevented Slater from being able to turn in until the last moment, then behind them Miki Koyama slid into the barriers and the rear of her car bounced back out into the path of Bianca Bustamante and Kevin Xiao. Marcus Cheong also came to a stop at the corner and the safety car was summoned once the leaders reached the final sector.

The big climber before that was Martinius Stenshorne, who had gone from 19th to 10th, and he gained more place on the lap three restart as Slater had a suspected electrical issue that led to him falling to 18th after pressuring Lindblad mid-lap.

Lindblad ended the lap with a 1.974-second lead over team-mate Charles Leong, with Rashid Al Dhaheri 2.752s behind in third. Slater picked up the pace and was fastest through sector one on the next lap while Stenshorne passed Tiago Rodrigues for seventh before the safety car appeared again due to Marco Lau crashing and putting fluid down.

The lead gap had grown to 2.892s before it was brought back down, and Slater took the lap eight restart in 16th place.

Thomas Leung ploughed into Kaishun Liu approaching Lisboa and sent him hard into the barriers, helping Slater up to 11th. The safety car was not called, and the top three fought hard for half of the lap before Lindblad pulled away. Stenshorne crashed out at Fisherman’s Bend, bringing Slater into the top 10.

On lap nine Lindblad grew his lead to 2.766s as Al Dhaheri pressured Leong, while Slater set the fastest lap. Lindblad took the fastest lap back on lap 10, despite it ending under safety car conditions due to Xiao crashing out, as Jack Beeton joined the battle for second.

The final two laps were completed with yellow flags everywhere, guaranteeing Lindblad victory. Slater finished ninth as Raphael Narac pitted from eighth on lap 10 and did not rejoin the race.

Main race results (12 laps)