Racing Bulls boss Alan Permane hailed his team's Friday efforts at the Spanish Grand Prix as an "excellent day", despite Arvid Lindblad's Turn 13 crash in FP2 bringing an early end to his running.
The VCARB 03 has already been lauded for its accessible handling properties, to the point where the car has generally shown strong compliance over kerbs and bumps - an ideal trait for the Madring, where kerb-riding in the first sector has been viewed as a potential source of lap time.
Indeed, Lindblad demonstrated good pace in that sector during the early qualifying simulations in FP2, but ended up losing the rear on the run out of La Monumental and slid sideways into the Turn 13 wall.
Regardless, Lindblad's lap was good enough for fourth place in the overall times, and Yuki Tsunoda also made it into the top 10 despite a difficult Friday in which he encountered power steering issues. Despite the more metaphorical bumps in the road, Permane was nonetheless satisfied with his team's first day at the Madring.
"If we take the crash out of it, it's been an absolutely excellent day. It really has," Permane enthused post-FP2.
"The car is quick. We started off with a decent car, made some changes from FP1 to FP2, and really improved it. It looks properly fast, the car. Certainly top ten, maybe even top seven qualifying car.
"Yuki didn't have the easiest of runs, but he's still up there in the top ten, and in front of all our main competitors. A really decent day."
Asked if he was confident of getting both cars into Q3, Permane responded in the affirmative: "I think so. We'll have to see how FP3 goes, of course. I don't see any reason why we won't, unless someone else finds something big overnight.
"I think we're pretty happy where we are. There might be some fine-tuning ahead of FP3. I don't see any reason why we shouldn't be confident in getting both those cars into Q3."
Arvid Lindblad, Racing Bulls
Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images
Lindblad explained that the crash was simply a result of having "overdid it a bit" into the corner, carrying too much speed and losing the rear end. The rookie attempted to countersteer to keep the car out of the wall, but the car was already uncontrollable at that point.
He contended that he hadn't lost too much, as the race simulations that the remaining teams managed were no longer than seven or eight laps, but understands he must step up with an increase in grip over FP3 and qualifying as the new track continues to rubber in.
"It's not an easy track, so we're all pushing to find the limits," he said. "It's new for all of us. We just made a bit of a mistake, overdid it a little bit in Turn 13. It's a bit of a shame. I apologise to the mechanics and to the team because it's a bit of extra work for them, unfortunately.
"But looking at the big picture, it's been a good day. We're very fast. I was running P4 on merit. I was only two tenths from P1, which is really strong. There's a lot of confidence in the team going into tomorrow. I'm just focused on resetting and trying to block it out and just take all the good learnings.
"I didn't lose too much. In the end, I don't know how much they did, maybe four or five laps, so no one got a proper long run. I didn't get any long run, but the loss is not massive because no one's got great understanding for Sunday.
"I was at the limit. I was doing a good job, so I'm happy about that. For sure, the grip's going to continue to increase tomorrow, as it does on any street circuit, so I just need to go with that. I just need to reset. The car's fast, we know. Qualifying is the most important thing here, and we showed good pace in that, so I'm pretty happy."
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