Arvid Lindblad wins wet and wild F4 SEA qualification race in Macau

Photo: Macau GP Organising Committee

Red Bull junior Arvid Lindblad won the Formula 4 qualification race in Macau to put himself on pole for the main race later today.

Wet and windy conditions hit Macau on Sunday morning, and it was decided the day’s first race would begin with two laps behind the safety car due to the challenging conditions an extreme levels of spray.

Pinnacle Motorsport’s Kaishun Liu spun into the barriers and broke his frong wing at the start of the second lap, which prolonged the safety car period into lap three and also required the safety car to lead the field though the pits at the end of lap two.

Those laps helped clear some water and reduce spray levels, but it was still a slippy surface when poleman Arvid Lindblad led the field up to racing speeds.

R-ace GP’s Hadrien David almost crashed before the restart properly got underway as the rear of his car slid out at Fisherman’s Bend, while Pinnacle’s Kai Daryanani was less lucky as he started lap four by crashing out.

Lindblad pulled away from team-mate Freddie Slater, David and Charles Leong through the first two sectors of the restart lap before the safety car was summoned again and the field had to head through the pitlane for a second time while a car was recovered on the pit straight.

The next restart was on lap six of eight and the top broke immediately broke away while those behind took differing lines through sector one to try to avoid being bombarded by spray.

R-ace’s Raphael Narac dropped back from seventh place after picking up damage to his rear wing and was shown the black-and-orange flag, but he gained back the two positions he lost as team-mate David crashed out then on the next lap Pinnacle’s Martinius Stenshorne (who had inherited seventh from Narac) came to a stop on track and did not get going again until he had been passed by everybody.

David’s crash meant the safety car was summoned once more on lap seven, which became the final lap due to the race clock hitting zero.

Lindblad had been leading by 1.9 seconds prior to the final interruption, with a gap of 7.3s to Leong in third and 9.3s to Rashid Al Dhaheri in fourth. That meant Prema-run cars filled the top four places, although only Al Dhaheri was entered by the team while his three team-mates were entered under the Theodore Racing banner.

Qualification race results (7 laps)