The biggest swing after the Canadian Grand Prix came from Arvid Lindblad, whose ‘Did not start’ result dropped him five places in average finish. Up front, Andrea Kimi Antonelli kept the lead while Lewis Hamilton’s climb reshaped the top three.
By Camille Fontaine
Arvid Lindblad’s Canadian Grand Prix weekend delivered the sharpest hit to the 2026 ‘best average race finish’ ranking: a ‘Did not start’ classification at Montreal (22nd, 0 laps) sent the RB F1 Team driver from 11th to 16th, leaving him on a 14.00 average finish after five races. In a metric that counts every official classification position across all entries, that kind of non-finish result is uniquely damaging — and the scale of the drop underlines how quickly the table can turn when one poor classified outcome is added to a small early-season sample.
That volatility hasn’t touched the very top. Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s win from second on the grid at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve — 68 laps completed for 25 points — means he remains the ranking leader at a scarcely believable 1.20 average finish, and the signal remains that the streak continues. The bigger change is just behind: Lewis Hamilton has moved from fourth to second with a 4.20 average, giving Ferrari two drivers in the top three alongside Charles Leclerc in third on 4.40, and setting up a tight intra-team reliability/finishing consistency picture even without a change at the very top.
The RB storyline cuts both ways, because Liam Lawson offset some of Lindblad’s damage with a strong classified result of his own. Lawson finished seventh despite being lapped (67 laps) after starting 12th, scoring six points and lifting his ranking from 14th to 11th on an 11.20 average finish. It’s a reminder that in this particular ranking, building a stable average is less about occasional highs and more about consistently putting a classification number on the board — and after round five, the drivers who have done that are being separated by increasingly small gaps near the front.
| Driver | Team | Before | After | Δ | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arvid Lindblad | RB F1 Team | 11 | 16 | -5 | 14.00 |
| Liam Lawson | RB F1 Team | 14 | 11 | +3 | 11.20 |
| Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | 4 | 2 | +2 | 4.20 |
Antonelli’s 1.20 average keeps the standard sky-high after five races, but the reshuffled chasing pack matters: Hamilton’s move to 4.20 places him directly ahead of Leclerc’s 4.40, while swings like Lindblad’s 11th-to-16th drop show how one classified non-start can redefine the mid-table in this all-results-included metric.