Lindblad happy with building momentum after P4 Monte Carlo finish

Arvid Lindblad finished fourth for PREMA Racing in the Monte Carlo Feature Race but despite missing out on any silverware, the British rookie was encouraged by his weekend around the Principality.Bouncing back from a Sprint Race collision with Christian Mansell’s ART Grand Prix on the opening lap of Saturday’s event, Lindblad drove a measured race to 12 points that moved him up into the top five of the Drivers’ Championship.Speaking afterwards, the Red Bull Junior Team driver said he had achieved his goal set for the Feature, adding that with his relative inexperience of Monaco compared to rivals, it had been a strong weekend.“Definitely a very specific race, it's a very unique one in the year,” Lindblad summarised. “Going into the weekend, it was going to be difficult with the experience I have, this being my first time at this track while most of my competitors coming here for the third or fourth time.FEATURE RACE: Minì becomes eighth winner in 2024 with Monte Carlo victory“I knew that the emphasis was on Qualifying. I did a decent job, adapted quite well and I think that sort of set me up and put me in a good position. Everyone knows here in Monaco Qualifying is crucial, by far the most important of the year because overtaking is very difficult. “Staring P4, I didn't want to take any stupid risks. I wanted to see if there was an opportunity on the first lap, but one didn't really come and then I was focused on just trying to play a bit for the fastest lap and an extra point that was available. Then it was just managing the tyres from there, see if there was a pace advantage at the end that I could maybe use.“I think I did a decent job from that side. But the pace in the last five laps before the Safety Car was really strong. Unfortunately, the last Safety Car meant I couldn't really use that pace, but anyway, I’m still really happy with P4.”Lindblad was pleased to leave Monte Carlo with Feature Race points as he builds on a promising start to 2024While he had no experience of Monte Carlo prior to this weekend, Lindblad arrived in the Principality with confidence after his Macau success at the tail end of 2023.The Red Bull Junior says that the goal of that weekend had been to raise his confidence and adaptability to the street circuits of the calendar, Monaco the principal weekend in that regard.With the added curveball of a wet Free Practice, his strong Qualifying result was a major boost to take into the upcoming rounds.“To be honest, that was one of the main reasons we did Macau - to gain experience for this weekend because as everyone knows, in F3 there's very little testing. As we saw this weekend in FP, I think we didn't even do two full dry laps and then went straight to Qualifying on a different tyre compound. “Having the confidence with the walls is paramount. The time to build up to it has to be as small as possible. So having that knowledge and that feeling prior to this definitely helps.“It was the first good Feature Race for me this year. I feel like every race has been a step forward"“We've had two really strong Qualifying sessions the last two weekends. That was sort of a weakness at the first two rounds, and we've gotten on top of that over the past two weekends, so we need to try keep going like that.”Heading into Round 5, Lindblad is now the highest-placed rookie in the Drivers’ Championship after his fourth-place finish. After taking the Sprint Race back in Sakhir, the Red Bull Academy junior has added points in five of the following seven races.He says he is continuing to build on his performances race-by-race, adding that second-year teammates in Gabriele Minì and Dino Beganovic have been very strong benchmarks from which to learn from.The goal now is to keep the momentum up around venues he has much more familiarity with.READ MORE: Arvid Lindblad on his fast F3 start, Sakhir win and adapting to a new Championship“It was the first good Feature Race for me this year. I feel like every race has been a step forward. and we need to keep going like this. Going to Barcelona next, it's a known track for me. I've done post-season tests last year, mid-season test this year, and the pace was strong - both Quali and race trim. So really excited for that one and we'll look ahead.“I'm just taking it step-by-step and race-by-race at the moment. It's been a very strong start to the year, definitely better than I could have hoped for. “I think P5 in the Standings is definitely very good at the moment and I'll just keep doing what I'm doing. I've got two really strong teammates, so I’ll try to keep learning from them, then we'll see what happens. I think the target is to get more comfortable, competitive and hopefully make where I am at the moment much more frequent and try to be slightly further forward than today.”