Red Bull star avoids serious punishment after technical issue at Mexico Grand Prix

Red Bull starlet Arvid Lindblad stepped into Max Verstappen's car for FP1 at the Mexico Grand Prix on Friday, before being summoned to the stewards to explain a possible impeding issue.

The 18-year-old was accused of impeding IndyCar star Pato O'Ward, sitting in for Lando Norris during the session – but got away with just a warning, and no sporting penalty.

The stewards' decision called Lindblad's actions 'objectively, potentially dangerous', but added that he appeared to have been fed incorrect information by his team, possible as a result of a GPS system outage.

The key part of their decision read: "Notwithstanding, the actions of LIN constituted an unnecessary impeding and were, objectively, potentially dangerous. As the incident occurred during Free Practice and had no sporting consequences, the Stewards decided to issue a Warning to the driver and the team."

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Mekies confirms unusual tech issue

"We took the decision to leave Arvid on low-ish fuel to not give him the complication of high and low fuel. He did a very good job. It's so difficult to jump in. The pace is there, so not much to argue against that."

Lindblad finished the session with the sixth fastest time, an impressive performance and comfortably the best of the nine rookies who took to the track for the early afternoon session.

In fact, the F2 star even set a faster time than his more experienced team-mate Yuki Tsunoda – a confidence booster for the teenager, although probably not what the under-pressure Tsunoda had hoped for coming into the session.

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