Round 6 at Monaco reshuffled the chasing pack in the 2026 ‘Most positions gained on lap one’ table, even as Fernando Alonso’s +22 lead held firm. Arvid Lindblad slipped from third to sixth, while Lance Stroll climbed into the top four.
By Elena Marsh
The sharpest change after the Monaco Grand Prix came from Arvid Lindblad: down three places in the season ranking, from third to sixth, despite still sitting on a strong +13 for the year. That drop matters because this is a table built on accumulation — grid position minus end-of-lap-one position, summed across the season — and a single round’s swing can be enough to lose track position in the standings even without a catastrophic underlying number.
At the top, Alonso continues to set the tone. His season-leading +22 keeps him P1 in the ranking after Monte Carlo, and it’s backed up by a weekend that underlined the theme of recovery: he qualified and started 21st and finished 10th, scoring 1 point. Behind him, the podium picture changed shape rather than names at the very front — Carlos Sainz holds second on +16 and Esteban Ocon remains third on +14 — making every point of lap-one progress increasingly valuable for those trying to bridge the gap to Alonso’s cushion.
Monaco also tightened the midfield fight on this metric. Lance Stroll rose two places from sixth to fourth on +14 for Aston Martin, matching the same season total shown for Ocon in third, while Sergio Pérez also moved up two spots to fifth on +14 for Cadillac. The flip side was Gabriel Bortoleto’s three-place slide from 16th to 19th, parked on -6, and even George Russell’s two-place rise from 18th to 16th came with -6 — a reminder that moving up the table isn’t always the same thing as generating positive lap-one gains.
The broader significance is that with six races completed and a minimum of three counted races required, the shape of the leaderboard is starting to stabilise — but not lock in. Monaco didn’t dethrone Alonso, yet it did show how quickly positions can change just outside the top three, where a couple of places in either direction can redraw the season narrative on who is consistently making progress when it matters most: the opening lap.
| Driver | Team | Before | After | Δ | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arvid Lindblad | RB F1 Team | 3 | 6 | -3 | +13 |
| Gabriel Bortoleto | Audi | 16 | 19 | -3 | -6 |
| Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 6 | 4 | +2 | +14 |
Alonso’s +22 keeps the benchmark out of immediate reach, but Monaco’s reshuffle shows the battle behind is volatile: Stroll’s jump to P4 on +14 and Lindblad’s fall to P6 on +13 compress the fight just off the podium while Sainz (+16) and Ocon (+14) remain the reference points for anyone trying to close on the lead.