After round 5 in Montreal, Arvid Lindblad still sits on top of the ‘Most positions lost’ table at −4, but the bigger story was Ferrari’s internal reshuffle: Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc both slid sharply down the ranking.
By Diego Torres
Arvid Lindblad remains the leader of the 2026 ‘Most positions lost’ ranking after the Canadian Grand Prix, holding station at a season total of −4. The key detail from Montreal is that the lead did not change despite a round that produced major movement elsewhere in the table, underlining just how tight the top of this metric still is after five races.
That closeness is visible immediately behind Lindblad: Gabriel Bortoleto is also on −4 in second, and Isack Hadjar has moved up to third on −3. With the methodology summing grid position minus finishing position across every classified race started from a proper grid slot, a one-race swing can flip this table quickly — and Canada showed that volatility even if the very top stayed pinned.
The biggest ranking moves came from Ferrari, but in opposite directions to what you might assume if you only looked at Sunday’s finishing order. Lewis Hamilton dropped five places in the ‘Most positions lost’ ranking, from 12th to 17th, with a Canada contribution of +6. In this metric, +6 is a swing towards losing ground, and it sits awkwardly alongside a strong race result: Hamilton started 5th and finished 2nd, completing 68 laps for 18 points. The ranking change is telling you that across the season to date, his net grid-to-flag picture has taken a hit in the balance after Montreal.
Charles Leclerc’s shift was almost as stark: down four places from 3rd to 7th, with a +1 value in Canada. That’s a smaller single-round movement than Hamilton’s +6, but the ranking drop is amplified because the top group is compressed: when the lead is −4 and third is −3, even modest negative drift can cost multiple positions. The net effect after round 5 is a Ferrari double slide that drags both drivers away from the sharp end of this particular table at the same time, creating a second storyline within a ranking that is supposed to be about ‘who lost the most’.
The other top-of-table adjustment was Hadjar’s step into the top three. He improved one position from 4th to 3rd and sits at −3, a sign that his season total is tracking closer to the leaders rather than drifting away. With no top-10 entries or exits this week, the reshuffle is concentrated among established names rather than being driven by fresh arrivals.
Franco Colapinto was the clearest example of the ranking responding to a tangible Sunday recovery. He qualified 10th, started 10th, and finished 6th, gaining four positions on the road despite being classified ‘Lapped’ after 67 laps. That kind of grid-to-finish progress is exactly what this ranking punishes in reverse: it reduces a driver’s season total of lost positions. Accordingly, Colapinto moved up two places in the ranking from 7th to 5th, and his season valueDisplay is now 0 — effectively a neutral net across five races.
George Russell also nudged forward in the table, rising one place from 5th to 4th on a valueDisplay of −1. It’s a smaller signal than Colapinto’s, but it matters because the mid-table is clearly mobile: a one-position change in rank can be the difference between sitting in the pack and being just a step off the podium places in this metric. Meanwhile, the ‘streak’ flag continuing suggests the pattern of meaningful week-to-week movement hasn’t flattened out yet, even with the lead unchanged.
After five races, the top of the ‘Most positions lost’ ranking is separated by a single net place: Lindblad and Bortoleto are tied on −4, and Hadjar is on −3. That’s a narrow margin in a metric where any one weekend’s grid versus finish swing can move a driver multiple ranking spots — as Hamilton (−5 positions in the ranking) and Leclerc (−4) just demonstrated.
The looming tension is that Canada mixed stability with sudden churn. Lindblad stayed first, but the order behind him is fluid and the mid-table is reactive, as shown by Colapinto’s jump to 5th with a season total pulled back to 0. With no top-10 entry or exit events this round, the next inflection is likely to come from the same core group rather than new names — making every grid slot and finishing position, not just the points, central to how this ranking looks by the time the season reaches its next phase.
| Driver | Team | Before | After | Δ | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | 12 | 17 | -5 | +6 |
| Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 3 | 7 | -4 | +1 |
| Franco Colapinto | Alpine F1 Team | 7 | 5 | +2 | 0 |
With Lindblad and Bortoleto tied on −4 and Hadjar close on −3, the top of ‘Most positions lost’ is effectively one weekend away from flipping. Canada’s Ferrari double slide shows how quickly this table can punish a season trend, while Colapinto’s climb to 0 underlines how a single grid-to-finish recovery can stabilise a campaign.