Lindblad scores Sprint point as Lawson scrambles after leak
Racing Bulls had a mixed Friday at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, pairing an encouraging aero upgrade with a reliability setback. Head of Trackside Engineering Mattia Spini said the upgrade "worked as expected" and suggested Liam Lawson likely would have had the pace to join Arvid Lindblad in SQ3 had he not been sidelined. Lawson was stopped early in FP1 by a hydraulics-related problem — SpeedCafe reported he came to a halt at Turn 4 with a suspected hydraulic leak — and sources disagreed on how much running he'd managed: F1 Technical said only "two push laps," SpeedCafe said "two or three laps," and Total Motorsport reported the car stopped after five laps. The leak forced a power unit change, per F1 Technical, and the team couldn't repair the car in time for Sprint Qualifying, leaving Lawson to watch from the sidelines. Team principal Alan Permane called the issue "a frustrating blow" on a sprint weekend and said its severity was unclear.
Reporting on Lawson's Sprint involvement diverged: F1 Technical said the hydraulics issue had "ruled Lawson out of Sprint Qualifying and left him to start 22nd," while SpeedCafe recorded that in the 23-lap Sprint he gained six places to finish 11th and "recorded the most overtakes of the field in the sprint." Lindblad, meanwhile, made it through to SQ3 and qualified ninth for the Sprint, his best Sprint qualifying lap about 0.8 seconds off George Russell's pole pace. He converted Saturday's result into a championship point with an eighth-place Sprint finish. After his limited running, Lawson said he'd be "playing catch-up," planning to lean on the Sprint session and Lindblad's telemetry to improve his setup and salvage Sunday's Grand Prix.
Despite the disruption, multiple sources reported Racing Bulls showed encouraging pace from the aero upgrade and were prioritising Sprint points with Lindblad while preparing a fast, reliable car to maximise both drivers' chances in qualifying and the race. In Saturday qualifying for the Grand Prix, SpeedCafe reported Lawson qualified 12th and "missed Q3 by 0.040 seconds," struggling to warm the soft tyres and locking the fronts on his final run. He came into Saturday 10th in the championship on 10 points, having earlier recorded a DNF in Miami on May 3 due to a gearbox failure.
