Formula 1 arrived at the brand-new Madring circuit on Friday expecting the chaos that had defined two days of Formula 3 testing, which produced 19 red flags. Instead, the top flight kept things remarkably tidy — just one car in the barriers across both practice sessions. Fittingly, it was the driver who had just gone fourth-fastest, Racing Bulls rookie Arvid Lindblad, who put his car into the wall at Turn 13.
Meanwhile, his more experienced teammate at Red Bull, Liam Lawson, could only manage 10th in both sessions — finishing behind Yuki Tsunoda, who was eighth in the sister Racing Bulls car. It continues an uncomfortable pattern that has now followed Lawson through three consecutive race weekends.
A New Circuit Passes Its First Real Test
Everybody expected trouble at a circuit with almost no prior data, but the Madring held up. Mercedes’ Bradley Lord said street circuits have come and gone in the sport, yet this one already feels built to last. Racing Bulls’ Alan Permane echoed the sentiment, noting the track didn’t feel like a temporary layout thrown into a car park, and that real effort had clearly gone into it. Pierre Gasly and Charles Leclerc both praised the grip on offer — though, as with any new venue, teams and drivers have a commercial incentive to talk it up.
The bigger question is what Sunday looks like. The corner sequence offers few obvious overtaking spots, and tyre wear may be the only thing that livens up the race. Mercedes half-joked about six pit stops after graining proved worse than expected, before Toto Wolff predicted the race would likely settle into a one-stop instead. The circuit is bumpier than the simulations suggested, and mechanical grip has been harder to find than every team anticipated. That mismatch between simulation and reality was the theme of the entire day.
Arvid Lindblad’s Crash Can’t Hide His Pace
Lindblad’s Friday numbers tell their own story. He was fourth in Free Practice 2, just 0.228 seconds off the fastest lap, and set that time in only 15 laps compared to the 26 completed by others — before sliding into the Turn 13 barrier, right-rear first. His own take was that the accident looked worse than it felt, comparing it to Charles Leclerc’s Monza crash and apologising to his mechanics for the extra workload.
Permane’s response was telling: he said he would rather be fourth with a damaged car than 18th with one still in one piece, adding that the car was “properly P4 pace” on Friday and expected to be competitive again on Saturday. It’s the third weekend in a row that the Racing Bulls car has looked like the most driver-friendly machine on the grid, and with nobody holding prior data on this circuit, the driver who trusts his car fastest gains the biggest advantage. Permane is now confident enough to talk publicly about reaching Q3 with both cars.
Liam Lawson Falls Behind Again
The order among Red Bull’s four contracted drivers on Friday was Max Verstappen, Lindblad, Tsunoda, then Lawson — identical to how it played out at Monza. Different circuit, no historical data for anyone, and the pecking order still didn’t move.
Lawson pointed to a lack of rear grip and admitted the team left some margin on the table while learning the new track. Team principal Laurent Mekies confirmed a genuine technical issue late in the session that was subsequently fixed. Both explanations have merit — but they’re harder to defend against the fact that his teenage teammate took zero margin, went fourth fastest, and paid for it with a wrecked car and a long night for the mechanics. Mekies was candid about the car’s overall competitiveness too, admitting mechanical grip and ride comfort were more challenging than expected, though the long-run pace and tyre management offered some encouragement.
Three race weekends into this stint, the Friday hierarchy inside Red Bull hasn’t changed once. Expect Lawson to close the gap in FP3 and qualifying as the team fine-tunes its setup — but the smart money remains on him finishing behind Lindblad again on Sunday, extending a streak likely to continue even after Lawson’s expected return to Racing Bulls following Madrid.
Yuki Tsunoda Caught in the Middle
Tsunoda’s day was neither disastrous nor impressive — 18th in FP1 after losing valuable track time, then eighth in FP2 despite traffic. He described it as an imperfect day but praised how fun the new circuit is to drive, noting that confidence matters enormously at a track nobody has raced before. Still, he finished eight-tenths behind his teammate in identical machinery — the number that matters most in the paddock. With only two possible seats left for next season, and both dependent on other people’s decisions, Tsunoda needed a stronger statement than Friday delivered.
Down the Grid: McLaren Trouble, Haas on the Rise
McLaren had a rough day at the worst possible circuit to lose track time — Lando Norris missed all of FP2 to a gearbox failure, and a grid penalty looks likely. Oscar Piastri ran both sessions but admitted the car is lacking pace. Aston Martin dealt with a fixed clutch issue for Fernando Alonso and a battery irregularity that cut short Lance Stroll’s FP2, keeping reliability as the team’s biggest concern this weekend.
Haas, by contrast, looked genuinely stronger after their Monza upgrade, with Esteban Ocon ninth and praising newfound consistency. Audi sat 12th and 13th, holding their steady midfield form, needing more to break into Q3.
Mercedes Lead the Way Into Qualifying
George Russell topped FP1, and rookie Kimi Antonelli went fastest in FP2 with a 1:33.662, prompting Mercedes to roll back their late setup changes overnight. It’s early to call qualifying or the race with any confidence, but Mercedes look like the team to beat, with Antonelli a genuine pole contender. Ferrari appeared strong too, though possibly on lighter fuel, while Verstappen’s stronger-than-expected long-run pace makes him a threat at a circuit that could reward whoever avoids mistakes rather than whoever is outright fastest.
Who do you have on pole tomorrow — and does the Madring produce a real race on Sunday, or a procession?
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