Arvid Lindblad qualified ninth for the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal on Saturday, matching his best Formula 1 qualifying result of the season and landing himself best of the rest behind the eight drivers from the top four teams. It came on a track he had never seen before, with rain expected for Sunday’s race.
“It’s been good this weekend,” Lindblad said after qualifying. “I was told before the weekend this could arguably be one of the hardest races so far this year, because it is a very challenging track, and it is a sprint weekend.” He added that Racing Bulls had given him a car he had been comfortable in from the start.
The result was enough to leave him pleased, but not entirely satisfied. Lindblad said he had been hearing projections of P5, P6 and P7 during Q1 and Q2, and for a while thought he might finish even higher. “Part of me was a little bit disappointed,” he said. “So to end up P9 was a little bit sad.”
Even so, he called it the best that was possible once the top teams sorted themselves out. He also pointed to the way he has built into the weekend, saying he had chipped away lap by lap and figured things out. That mattered on a circuit he was only seeing for the first time in Montreal.
The ninth-place effort also matched Lindblad’s best qualifying result of the year, first set in Australia. He had already shown pace in Montreal on Friday, when he qualified ninth for the sprint and then scored a point by finishing eighth, a sign that the weekend’s speed was no one-lap fluke.
Racing Bulls arrived in Canada with an upgrade package that included a modified floor and beam wing, and Lindblad described it as “a solid step.” He said the team had done a phenomenal job after Miami, where a different upgrade had not delivered the gains they wanted and left them out in Q1. “We had an upgrade for Miami, and it wasn’t as good as we hoped,” he said, before adding that he had been slightly pessimistic coming into Canada. “From the first lap in FP1, I felt really comfortable, and we’ve been fast.”
That contrast is what gives the Montreal result weight. The same team that left Miami looking for answers has now put together a weekend in which Lindblad has been quick in every session, with the upgrade package appearing to have given him a cleaner platform to work from. He said every lap he had done in Montreal had been quick, and credited the team for bouncing back.
There is still one more twist to the weekend. Lindblad said he did proper testing in the wet in Suzuka with a 2026 car, and that experience could matter if the forecast holds for Sunday’s race. “I think for sure that day that I did in Suzuka will be handy tomorrow if it’s wet,” he said.
For now, though, Montreal has already given him something he did not have before: a fast response to a difficult circuit, a clear step from the team, and a qualifying result that says Racing Bulls are back in the fight when their package works.
