Suzuka test hit by a wet-weather incident
Arvid Lindblad crashed during a Pirelli tyre test at Suzuka after aquaplaning into the barriers when his Racing Bulls car ran into standing water on the circuit. The impact damaged the front of the car, with the front wing torn off, but it was not a heavy crash by any sensible measure.
The British driver had stepped in for Liam Lawson for the two-day test held after the Japanese Grand Prix, as Pirelli used the session to gather more tyre data before F1 heads into its five-week break.
Red Bull and Racing Bulls help Pirelli recover lost testing time
Racing Bulls and its parent team are the two outfits supporting Formula 1's sole tyre supplier at Suzuka. The timing matters, because Pirelli also lost its planned Bahrain test before the season after that session was cancelled because of the war in the Middle East.
The weather forecast for Suzuka suggested more than a little help from the heavens, so the tyre work started on day one with Lawson and Isack Hadjar running the full-wet compounds in the morning. As the circuit dried, the teams switched to intermediate tyres.
Pirelli said: "The Red Bull driver completed 69 laps for a total of 401 kilometres, while the Racing Bulls driver managed 65 laps covering 377 kilometres."
Hadjar is the only Red Bull driver in the RB22 for the test. Max Verstappen was not expected to take part, although he did test his Mercedes GT3 at the Nürburgring earlier in the week. Talk that Yuki Tsunoda would be behind the wheel for either team also turned out to be wrong, because he did not join the running.
Despite the damage to the VCARB 03, Lindblad was able to return to the car and continue the final afternoon of the test. A minor setback, then, in a programme that was mostly about collecting tyre data rather than producing highlights for the fans.
