Arvid Lindblad was left “extremely happy” after taking ninth place in his first F1 qualifying session, with the rookie admitting he “knew going into the session that we were fast” as both Racing Bulls cars reached the top 10 in Australia.

After attracting attention with his performance during Friday’s race at the Albert Park circuit, Lindblad appeared in good form again on Saturday and advanced to the final segment of qualifying, where he set the ninth fastest lap, just behind teammate Liam Lawson in eighth.

When later told he should be ecstatic about how his first qualifying had gone, the Briton replied: “Yeah, it was really good. I think we were pretty competitive all weekend.”

“I was trying not to get too excited after yesterday, because we didn’t know if things were going to change or if other teams had more in their pockets or something. But coming into the session I knew we were fast, and I just needed to focus on myself and do my job and we could be competitive.”

“The team has done a phenomenal job. It’s really impressive to have two cars in Q3, especially from where we were in Bahrain. I think it was much more than [mine] and the expectations of the team, so I am very happy and I can’t wait for tomorrow.”

There was a dramatic moment for Lindblad at the end of Q2 when he encountered the slow cars of Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto and teammate Lawson ahead of him at the pit entrance, as Bortoleto suffered a problem with his car that left him unable to participate in Q3.

“It was a little scary,” the 18-year-old admitted. “I’ll check with the team, see if there was anything I did wrong or something missing, but luckily we came out unscathed.”

Across the Racing Bulls garage, Lawson was equally pleased with the qualifying result, which he admitted was perhaps better than he and the team had anticipated.

“I think, honestly, where we thought we would be this weekend probably wasn’t here, so yeah, I’m very happy with that,” the New Zealander explained.

“I think the beginning of qualifying for me was quite difficult, honestly, so I finally pieced it together towards the end, but it was quite difficult from where I was sitting.

“It was actually difficult to get a full lap – I kept blocking, making mistakes and we had a pretty fast car, so it was a bit unnecessary, to be honest, on my part – but towards the end it was better.

“We keep a new set [of tyres] Also for tomorrow, which is positive: we didn’t do a new series in Q3 because everyone around us was already out.

“It’s fantastic to arrive tomorrow with a new set of softs and two cars in Q3, honestly, it’s very, very positive.

“So yeah, I’m happy with the day. Obviously, tomorrow is going to be a long race and these cars, so far, when they’re new like this one, they’re not always the most reliable, so we’ll see.”