Report: A weekend to forget in Canada

Just 62 laps recorded over three days on a weekend of bad luck in Montreal

Published

24 MAY 2026

Est. reading time

2 min

When your luck is out, it’s out – and that was certainly true of Alex Albon’s 2026 Canadian Grand Prix weekend.

A pair of incidents meant that AA23 completed just 62 laps across all five competitive sessions of the maiden Sprint weekend in Montreal.

After just 15 laps of FP1, a very unfortunate moment involving local wildlife led to a collision with the barriers, and the damage was significant enough that Alex had to sit out Sprint Qualifying.

He returned to the track on Saturday for the 23-lap Sprint, but starting from the pit lane was always going to be an uphill battle, so the decision was made to use the second half of the 100km dash as a test session – seeing him come home in P20.

A narrow Q1 exit by just 0.076s meant Alex would start P18 for Sunday’s Grand Prix.

Mixed conditions at lights out created a split between soft, medium and intermediate runners at the start. The soft tyre proved to be the right call, and Alex was running on the outskirts of the top 10 when his race came to an early end.

An ambitious lunge from Oscar Piastri saw the McLaren make contact with Alex’s sidepod, bringing his Canadian Grand Prix weekend to a close after 11 laps.

Attention now immediately shifts to the Monaco Grand Prix in two weeks’ time.