After three races, Arvid Lindblad is now the benchmark in the 2026 ‘Most positions lost’ ranking, with Suzuka turning a small seasonal deficit into a shared −4 total. Behind him, the biggest shake-up came from three drivers sliding out of the top 10 altogether.
By Camille Fontaine
Arvid Lindblad is the new leader of 2026’s ‘Most positions lost’ ranking after the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, and the way he got there underlines how quickly this metric can swing in the early season. Starting 10th and finishing 14th across 53 laps, Lindblad’s −4 in Japan took him to a season total of −4 and pushed him past previous leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
What makes Lindblad’s move to the top notable is that it isn’t built on one catastrophic weekend: it’s a cumulative measure of grid slot versus final classification across every classified race started from a proper grid position. Three rounds in, that cumulative picture is already tight enough that a single race result like P10 to P14 can flip the lead.
He isn’t alone on −4, either. Gabriel Bortoleto also sits on −4 for Audi, but is classified second on the ranking’s tie-break, leaving Lindblad first despite identical net loss totals.
Suzuka has compressed the front of this table into a small band, with the top three separated by a single place: Lindblad and Bortoleto on −4, then Isack Hadjar on −3 for Red Bull. That closeness matters, because the ranking is effectively a running sum of small swings; one weekend of losing a couple more places than your nearest rivals can reshape the order.
Hadjar is the clearest example of that volatility in reverse. He was the biggest climber within the ranking itself, moving from sixth to third (a gain of three positions) after starting eighth and finishing 12th in Japan, a −4 race that leaves him on −3 for the season. The headline is that he’s now one result away from joining the −4 group at the front, rather than being stranded in the pack.
The more dramatic story in the post-Suzuka reshuffle is the set of exits from the top 10. Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton, Oliver Bearman, Liam Lawson and Max Verstappen all fell outside the first 10 places of the ranking after Japan, with Leclerc, Hamilton and Bearman each registering the maximum movement magnitude of the round: eight places down the order.
Leclerc’s swing is the most eye-catching because it came despite a front-running finish. He started fourth and finished third at Suzuka over 53 laps, yet his season ‘Most positions lost’ value now reads +2 and he dropped from third to 11th in the ranking. In other words, his year-to-date picture has moved away from net losses and toward net gains — exactly the opposite direction to Lindblad’s — and that’s enough to eject him from the top 10 even with a strong single Sunday result.
The flip side of those departures is a set of new names appearing among the top 10 entrants. Franco Colapinto is now fifth on −1 for Alpine, while Oscar Piastri and Carlos Sainz both appear at the lower end of the top 10 with +1 for McLaren and Williams respectively. The variety of values tells its own story: after just three races, the top 10 contains drivers who have consistently lost ground overall (negative totals) and others who have, on balance, been moving forward (positive totals).
That mixed picture is why the lead change matters beyond the headline. With no streak forming yet, the ranking is still searching for its shape — and Suzuka’s outcome shows how quickly a driver can be pulled into the ‘positions lost’ conversation, or pushed out of it, based purely on grid-versus-finish swings rather than overall pace narratives.
| Driver | Team | Before | After | Δ | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 3 | 11 | -8 | +2 |
| Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | 7 | 15 | -8 | +3 |
| Oliver Bearman | Haas F1 Team | 8 | 16 | -8 | +5 |
Three rounds in, the ‘Most positions lost’ table is finely balanced: Lindblad and Bortoleto are tied on −4, Hadjar sits one place back on −3, and large rank swings like Leclerc/Hamilton/Bearman dropping eight positions show how quickly the top 10 can turn over.