2026 CANADIAN GRAND PRIX — SPRINT QUALIFYING REPORT
May 22, 2026 — Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal — The Cadillac Formula 1 ® Team had a positive first opening day of the Canadian Grand Prix, with Checo Perez and Valtteri Bottas coming close to making it to the second segment of Sprint Qualifying. Both drivers maximized the session but were unable to set a final lap time to challenge for a place in SQ2 following a frantic restart after a red flag incident.
Checo qualified for tomorrow’s 23-lap Sprint Race in 17th position, with Valtteri 20th. The Sprint race will take place at midday tomorrow followed by Canadian Grand Prix Qualifying at 4 p.m local time.
Checo Perez:
Sprint Qualifying Position: 17th
“I think we maximized our performance today, which is something that makes me pleased. We made some good changes going into Sprint Quali and were really close to getting into SQ2, but at the end there was just not enough time for everyone to get another lap in. Hopefully tomorrow we can have a good Sprint and set ourselves up well for qualifying and then the race. Our main objective is to get as much learning as possible ahead of the race, especially as Sunday is looking like it could be tricky conditions.”
Valtteri Bottas:
Sprint Qualifying Position: 20th
“We were unlucky today. I was banking everything on the last two laps but unfortunately that never happened with the red flag. Even though the results don’t show now, I still feel like we are making progress. We’ve changed quite a lot with my car for this weekend including a different chassis. It's been feeling better and quite different to the previous races. There's still lots of sessions that matter with it being a Sprint weekend, so we’ll keep pushing.”
Graeme Lowdon, Team Principal:
“Today felt like we took another step forward. We’ve run reliably and despite a tricky practice session interrupted by red flags, we kept focus and improved our performance going into Sprint Qualifying. We came close to making it into SQ2 and I think we could have had a real shot with both cars on our final lap but sadly we didn’t pass the flag in time after the restart. We will take this momentum into the Sprint tomorrow and gather as much information as possible for Sunday’s race.”