Not only do this week’s Power Rankings reflect the Austrian Grand Prix, but the judges take into account how the drivers performed in the Sprint too. Here are the scores from an action-packed few days at the Red Bull Ring.
How it works
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Our five-judge panel assess each driver after every Grand Prix and score them out of 10 according to their performance across the weekend – taking machinery out of the equation
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Our experts’ scores are then averaged out to produce a race score – with those scores then tallied up across the season on our overall Power Rankings Leaderboard (at the bottom of the page)
Leclerc couldn’t contend with the pace of Verstappen on Friday, the Ferrari driver qualifying second to the Red Bull, nor on Saturday when the Monegasque had to fend off the challenge of his team mate Sainz at the start of the Sprint. Leclerc did catch up to within two seconds of Verstappen for P2 in the Sprint and then made three passes for the lead on Sunday to ensure an Austrian Grand Prix win – his first win since Round 3. And a hard-fought one at that, given his stuck throttle…
You wait for an F1 point and then 12 come at once. Schumacher opened his account in Silverstone and is now on something of a roll, having picked up a stellar P6 finish in the Austrian Grand Prix. He put in a shift on Sunday, pitting from P5 and falling to P14, passing four cars on the way back to P6, and then pitting again to cement Haas’s biggest points haul since the 2018 Austrian Grand Prix. Schumacher also qualified seventh for the Sprint, in which he finished a solid ninth.
Verstappen seemed to have the run of the Red Bull Ring, taking pole position on Friday, finishing the Sprint in P1 ahead of both Ferraris – though his tyres did begin to fall off towards the end to allow Leclerc to close up – but Sunday wasn’t as easy, the championship leader losing out to Leclerc. He fought fair and firm but couldn’t hold off the Ferraris, finishing second in the Grand Prix as Sainz retired.
Ocon impressed the judges and was clearly at one with his Alpine from the get-go, qualifying fifth for the Sprint, finishing sixth for points on Saturday, and then finishing fifth as the last driver on the lead lap on Sunday. Perhaps a performance that could easily be overlooked, given Schumacher took P6 and Hamilton snatched the last podium place – but the judges certainly took notice of Ocon’s weekend.
READ MORE: Ocon hails ‘perfect weekend’ for Alpine after fifth place finish at Austrian GP
Sainz managed third on the grid for the Sprint and then challenged his team mate Leclerc for P2 at the start of Saturday’s 100km dash, the Spaniard eventually losing out and falling back for P3. Starting there on Sunday, Sainz looked likely to overhaul Verstappen for P2 later on in the race – and then his hopes went up in smoke as Sainz was forced to retire, just as he was lining up a pass on the reigning champion. A DNF, but the judges acknowledged Sainz’s hard work.
What a rollercoaster weekend for Alonso. He qualified eighth for the Sprint but an electrical issue saw him start last for the Grand Prix. Staying out long in his first stint, he was fighting for P7 towards the end of the race. But a botched pit stop that saw the two-time champion have to stop twice during the late Safety Car meant Alonso was dropped out of the points with 10 laps to go. He made four passes at the end to grab the last point in style.
With so many great performances on Sunday, Hamilton ended up seventh in the Power Rankings despite taking a podium in Austria. A Q3 crash on Friday probably didn’t help the Mercedes driver’s score, nor did a laboured and scrappy P8 in the Sprint, but Hamilton turned the wick up in the Grand Prix and managed to finish ahead of team mate Russell too.
READ MORE: Podium ‘a small token of my appreciation’ to Mercedes for big car rebuild, says Hamilton
Magnussen hit the ground running with P6 in qualifying, ahead of his team mate, and finished ahead of Schumacher with P7 (and points) in the Sprint. But on Sunday he was just off the German driver and finished eighth behind the McLaren of Lando Norris. Still a solid weekend for the Danish driver, especially considering he was fighting an engine issue in Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix…
Norris split the Haas drivers with eighth and was ahead of Daniel Ricciardo throughout the Austrian Grand Prix. The Briton could only qualify 15th on Friday, however, improving to P11 in the Sprint. From there, Norris made it as high as seventh with a productive final stint, despite a five-second penalty for breaching track limits.
Fourth-place finisher Russell rounds out the top 10 in this week’s Power Rankings reflecting the Austrian weekend. The Mercedes driver fell to 19th on Sunday after making contact with Perez, and disputed the subsequent five-second pit lane penalty. However, he made numerous on-track passes and recovered to P4 behind Hamilton. Along with Hamilton, Russell also crashed in qualifying, which is probably another reason his score dipped this week.
Missing out
Alex Albon was the driver to miss out on the top 10 this week, the Williams driver finishing a solid 12th – and garnering a score just a fraction below Russell’s in this week’s Power Rankings.
Leaderboard
