Hitech’s Lindblom leads 39-car field in UAE4 pre-season testing

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

Hitech GP’s Scott Lindblom set the pace in UAE4 pre-season testing at Yas Marina Circuit over the last two days.

The Red Bull junior, who began his single-seater career by coming third in Saudi Arabian Formula 4 and ninth in Formula Trophy last month, will be team-mate to the British F4-experienced Theo Palmer and two drivers backed and co-entered by the Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation.

Lindblom was fourth fastest in Tuesday’s opening session, as R-ace GP’s Andy Consani laid down a 1m55.739s benchmark to lead Prema’s late signing David Cosma Cristofor by 0.175 seconds. Despite taking poles in Italian F4 as a single-seater rookie last year, Cosma came 26th in the standings there and was 17th in F4 Middle East.

Sasha Bondarev, driving for the Prema-run Mumbai Falcons squad, was 0.305s off Consani in third and 0.107s ahead of Lindblom who pipped Yas Heat Academy’s local driver Adam Al Azhari to fourth.

Prema’s Christian Costoya and Payton Westcott, who has confirmed she will race for the team, were one-two in session two. A 1m56.123s put Costoya ahead by 0.145s, with Bondarev a further 0.034s back. Consani, Niccolo Maccagnani (Mumbai Falcons) and Cosma were also within 0.3s of Costoya, as a second covered the top 16.

Cosma lowered the pace to 1m55.881s in session three, edging Lindblom by 0.026s and Bondarev by 0.221s. Maccagnani, Westcott and Costoya all trailed by over 0.37 but under 0.4 seconds as only nine drivers were within a second of Cosma.

Lindblom posted an unbeatable 1m55.633s in session four, securing top spot overall by 0.055s over Consani whose team-mate Kenzo Craigie was a further 0.392s back in third. Palmer, Rowan Campbell-Pilling (Pinnacle Motorsport) and Bondarev were also within 0.5s of Lindblom as a second split the top 14.

A 1m56.1s was enough to put Lindblom on top in session five the next morning, but by a tiny margin again as he pipped Campbell-Pilling by 0.012s. Al Azhari trailed by 0.225s in third, edging R-ace’s Emily Cotty. Consani, Jarrett Clark (Xcel Motorsport), Craigie and Palmer were within 0.1s of her as the top 17 was convered by a one-second difference in pace.

Bondarev set a 1m55.73s in session six to lead Consani by 0.3s, Maccagnani by 0.642s and go third fastest overall. Consani set an identical laptime to top session seven, 0.228s ahead of Bondarev, 0.26s clear of Lindblom, 0.376s faster than Costoya and 0.449s up on Clark.

Testing concluded with Lindblom on top again, a 1m55.862s earning him session eight’s top spot with a 0.311s gap to Clark and 0.461s to Palmer in third. While only eight drivers were within a second of Lindblom, the same gap covered the whole test’s top 19.

Test results