British F1 driver set for penalty that will see him start LAST at the Bahrain Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton and Arvid Lindblad fist bump at the Aus GP — Photo: © IMAGO

Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia

British driver set for penalty that will see him start LAST at the Bahrain Grand Prix

That's a blow!

Chris Deeley Editor

Experienced sports writer covering F1 and other motorsports since 2023

Thursday 1 October 2026 16:07

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Racing Bulls star Arvid Lindblad will start this Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia from the back of the grid, after taking a penalty.

The penalty is not related to the contentious moment last time out in Baku which saw him spin his own team-mate Liam Lawson at a chaotic safety car restart, but is instead about power unit components.

The teenager will take a new power unit for this weekend's race – his first of the season outside of his allotted pool – and will slide right down to the back of the grid as a result.

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It's unclear exactly how many places Lindblad will officially be penalised, but anything over 15 – which, for a power unit change, it will be – automatically sends a driver to dead last anyway.

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Lindblad looking to get back on track after team-mate collision

That should, at least, keep Lindblad out of the way of his team-mate for much of Sunday's race, possibly not to keen to be racing close with the Kiwi after the latter was less than impressed by the way his race ended last Saturday.

“I need to watch it," he said, speaking to the media in the immediate aftermath. "We were all coming into Turn 1 on the restart and I just got smoked from my left. It put a hole in my floor as well.

“I don’t really know what gap he was looking for in the middle of both of us going into Turn 1 – I just don’t understand it. Obviously great points for the team but it sucks for our race.”

Lindblad was actually seen approaching Lawson during the latter's post-race media pen interview with Sky Sports, taking him aside briefly to apologise and explain his side of the incident.

Lindblad: There's not much I could've done

The young Brit said after the race that he didn't feel that he had anywhere he could've gone at that moment, explaining: “At the back where we were, we’d gone about three times on the straight before we actually went because the field wasn’t bunched up well at all.

“It was just an absolute mess going into Turn 1. Everyone was moving a lot. Obviously a bit of a shame to hit Liam but if you see the incident, you can see there's not much I could’ve done. I came and immediately apologised to him, and obviously I apologised to the team because there could’ve been two of us up there today.”

He added: “On the bright side, let’s take the points. It’s been a very difficult weekend – we struggled to get out of Q1, to be honest. To be here now scoring good points whilst our competitors are out is obviously amazing considering the struggles, so I’m very happy."