A fairytale first podium grabbed Formula 1's collective attention at the conclusion of the British Grand Prix - so can anyone but milestone man Nico Hulkenberg really be number one in the driver rankings for the weekend?
The answer to that, plus the assessments of a handful of high-profile Sunday 'duds', in Edd's traditional write-up below.
How do the rankings work? The 20 drivers will be ranked in order of performance from best to worst on each grand prix weekend. This will be based on the full range of criteria, ranging from pace and racecraft to consistency and whether they made key mistakes. How close each driver got to delivering on the maximum performance potential of the car will be an essential consideration.
It’s important to note both that this reflects performance across the entire weekend, cognisant of the fact that qualifying is effectively ‘lap 0’ of the race and key to laying the foundations to the race, and that it is not a ranking of the all-round qualities of each driver. It’s simply about how they performed on a given weekend. Therefore, the ranking will fluctuate significantly from weekend to weekend.
And with each of the 10 cars fundamentally having different performance potential and ‘luck’ (ie factors outside of a driver’s control) contributing to the way the weekend plays out, this ranking will also differ significantly from the overall results.
Started: 8th Finished: 6th
If escaping Q1 in the troubled Alpine was a minor miracle, then reaching Q3 in it was a major one as Pierre Gasly, assisted by a tow from Lando Norris, completed a remarkable turnaround after a painful Friday.
Want to quiz Edd on his rankings? Join The Race Members' Club and head to this post for your chance to do so.
The wet conditions prevented the expected regression to the mean in the race, but it still required Gasly to drive a formidable race during which he proved an unexpected nuisance to some big names. And it was all capped off by passing Lance Stroll for sixth on the Hangar Straight on the last lap.
Verdict: Maximised qualifying and race result.
Started: 19th Finished: 3rd
Underachieving a little in qualifying, albeit in a Sauber that struggled in dry conditions at Silverstone, costs Nico Hulkenberg the top spot in the rankings. However, his race drive was exquisite, taking fresh intermediates at the right moment (a decision based on his starting inters being in bad shape) allowing him to climb the order before an equally well-timed switch to slicks.
But it was his pace, and lack of errors, in difficult conditions that allowed him to turn that into a long-awaited podium - reminding everyone of his class.
Verdict: A career highlight.
Started: 3rd Finished: 1st
This was a significant victory for Norris not because he dominated, but because he wasn’t at his absolute best yet still came away with a win in his home grand prix.
Oscar Piastri’s penalty was the key stroke of luck, while Max Verstappen made it easy for him by spinning out of his way - albeit after Norris had already overtaken him, then lost second to a slow pitstop.
On a weekend where the intra-McLaren battle was close, he had squandered an opportunity to be on the front row on Saturday, but showed excellent race pace even though he likely wouldn’t have beaten Piastri in a straight fight. However, the fact Norris didn’t put himself in the sights of the stewards means he slips ahead of Piastri in the rankings.
Verdict: Needed a little help to win.
Started: 2nd Finished: 2nd
How you rank Piastri’s weekend depends entirely on how you perceive his 10-second penalty for driving erratically under the safety car. He was certainly unfortunate, although given his previous restart, where he did a similar thing, had also caught the eye of race control (though hadn’t led to a formal investigation), this suggests he was at least taking a risk.
The stewards indicated he dropped from 218km/h to 52km/h, which suggests the harsh penalty was not without foundation.
Read more: Everything we learned from F1's British GP
Putting himself in the sights of the stewards there, and the wide moment at Stowe on his first Q3 run that gave him floor damage, are the two downsides but there was also plenty to be positive about - notably the fact he passed Verstappen, then disappeared down the road before the safety cars intervened.
Verdict: Would have won without the penalty.
Started: 5th Finished: 4th
Considering the high hopes after practice, to start fifth and finish fourth seems a little underwhelming. However, given the troubles Charles Leclerc had in the race, Lewis Hamilton’s imperfect run to fourth represented a good effort.
But the speed was there to have beaten Hulkenberg to third even though the McLarens were out of reach, with the off on his outlap after switching to slicks the key moment in turning that battle against him.
Verdict: Outqualified and outraced Leclerc.
Started: 7th Finished: 9th
Put in his now-customary Q3 appearance, having outpaced Stroll by four tenths earlier in qualifying, but felt a shot at third place was let slide in the race thanks to poor strategy.
He had a point, particularly with the early switch to slicks late in the race costing him, and he did appear to have superior race pace to Stroll, who benefitted from a track position bump. However, he also lost a place to Alex Albon on the final lap, albeit with the Williams driver having tyres five laps younger.
Verdict: Pace was strong, but it was a frustrating race.
Started: 9th Finished: 12th
Carlos Sainz seemed a little less happy with the Williams than Albon, although was the team’s better qualifier - even though he didn’t feel the pace was there to reach Q3.
He drove a clean and dogged race, surviving an initial clash with Leclerc but then suffering damage when he was collected by the Ferrari driver at Stowe. That left him to battle to a pointless 12th when he was on course at the very least to get the eighth place his team-mate achieved.
Verdict: Another frustrating weekend.
Started: 13th Finished: 8th
Once again, Albon was frustrated not to reach Q3 and looked to have the edge on pace over Sainz. However, timing was against him - both with being sent out on fresh softs when the Q1 red flag was imminent, then in doing his final Q2 run earlier than ideal with compromised tyre prep.
He then felt he was compromised further by being behind Sainz in the race, meaning he didn’t have pitstop priority, but he moved ahead when Leclerc clattered Sainz at Stowe. A last-lap pass on Alonso gave him a handy eighth place.
Verdict: A better weekend than his solid anonymity suggests.
Started: 17th Finished: 7th
Stroll showed strong pace during practice, but struggled badly with the car once it was on qualifying fuel levels in terms of how nervous the rear end was on corner entry. Even so, his Q1 lap was right with Alonso until Becketts before falling away and leading to his elimination.
The switch to slicks on lap six was well-timed based on conditions, but had to be backed off four laps later with a return to intermediates - after which he shook out fourth, which became third when Verstapen spun.
However, he slid back down to seventh, with Gasly passing him on the final lap, as his pace wasn’t quite as strong as that of team-mate Alonso at times.
Verdict: Poor in qualifying, but better in the race.
Started: 1st Finished: 5th
For two of the three days, the British Grand Prix weekend followed the template of a Verstappen masterclass. He struggled with understeer on Friday, then took a superb pole position running a trimmed out rear wing selected because it was the best way to improve the balance.
While he led early on, he inevitably fell behind the two McLarens but it was an atypical performance in that he had two significant offs - once running wide and letting Norris past, then dropping it at the second safety car restart and falling back to 10th. He battled home fifth in a car he called “undriveable” at times.
Verdict: Brilliant Saturday, but a painful Sunday.
Started: 4th Finished: 10th
George Russell pulled a superb lap out of the bag in qualifying to qualify an unexpected 0.137s off pole position.
However, he was perhaps guilty of being a little too aggressive in the race, jumping onto slicks on the formation lap then repeating the mistake by going back to slicks too early late on, then immediately having an off-track excursion. That second decision turned seventh place into 10th.
However, his pace was strong in the race and on the correct strategy he would have been a podium threat.
Verdict: Fast but dual slick gambles backfired.
Started: 10th Finished: DNF
Kimi Antonelli’s pace in qualifying was unspectacular, lapping 0.345s off Russell and struggling with rear-end instability in the high-speed in the windy conditions. That’s why he described sector 2 and the start of sector 3 as “always a bit of a struggle”.
The switch to slicks after two laps under VSC was a gamble that didn’t work, with the corrective pitstop meaning he was down the order when the unsighted Hadjar rear-ended him at Copse, giving him diffuser damage that forced Antonelli’s retirement.
Verdict: A tricky weekend, but an innocent victim in the race.
Started: 14th Finished: 13th
Although Ocon didn’t appear to have the final edge of pace that Bearman did, he was unfortunate in qualifying in that he flatspotted his fresh softs on the final Q2 run after being caught out by Verstappen’s approach while on his outlap. That meant he couldn’t really attack on his final lap, explaining much of the 0.416s deficit to Bearman.
After surviving being sandwiched between Tsunoda and Lawson on the opening lap, something he tried to back out of, the strategic gamble of staying out on his starting intermediates longer than anyone didn’t pay off, and that put him on the back foot.
The clash with Bearman at Brooklands put paid to any hope of points.
Verdict: A little stronger than the results suggest.
Started: 15th Finished: DNF
This was one of those weekends where Liam Lawson showed decent pace when it didn’t matter, but struggled when it did. He was utterly baffled by the lack of grip in qualifying, which led to him being eliminated in Q1 after lapping just over a quarter of a second off Hadjar.
His race ended on the first lap after a collision with Ocon, an unfortunate one given he was unaware Tsunoda had attacked the Haas on the inside - although you can argue he didn’t entirely play the percentages.
Verdict: Ultimately, a nothing weekend.
Started: 11th Finished: 15th
This looked like another weekend of much the same strife for Yuki Tsunoda, but it was a little better than that. Running a more conventional rear wing level than his team-mate, he likely would have reached Q3 but for a Honda setting error that cost him a little time on his final Q2 lap - and that’s despite sitting out FP1.
He was in serious points contention early on after surviving the first-lap clash with Ocon/Lawson, running ninth ahead of Hulkenberg. However, he struggled for pace at times thanks to tyre degradation, which combined with a harsh 10s penalty for causing a collision with Ollie Bearman meant another pointless weekend.
Verdict: Some progress, but not enough.
Started: 6th Finished: 14th
It’s rare for Leclerc to put together a weekend so lacking in redeemable features. He underachieved in qualifying, berating himself over the radio after completing his final lap, then was pitched into a nightmare spiral after pitting for slicks on the formation lap.
His pace wasn’t good, he struggled to keep the car on track and managed to hit Sainz while on his way to a trip through the Stowe gravel. The only positive is that he made the finish.
Verdict: Underachieved in qualifying, struggled badly in the race.
Started: 12th Finished: DNF
Isack Hadjar did what he could with the Racing Bulls in qualifying, which wasn’t quite enough to get it into Q3. After gambling on a switch to slicks on the formation lap, he inevitably had to return to intermediates and was down the order when he was caught out by the dire visibility approaching Copse and rear ended Antonelli, leading to a hefty shunt.
While he was extremely unlucky to be caught out in that way, given the race had only just restarted he perhaps should have been slightly more cautious in the murk.
Verdict: Best described as experience-building.
Started: 18th Finished: 11th
Bearman’s pace was hugely impressive at Silverstone, the rookie adapting to the upgraded Haas well and setting the eight-fastest qualifying time. The trouble is that he had already compromised his weekend by crashing in the pit entry after losing it on cold brakes under the red flag - as he put it, a “silly error, one that shouldn’t happen at this level”.
His race pace was also good but time lost to a clash with Tsunoda and another with his team-mate meant a third-consecutive 11th place.
Verdict: A classic rookie weekend - fast but undermined by errors.
Started: 16th Finished: DNF
Nothing wrong with Gabriel Bortoleto's performance level, but two crashes sink his rating.
He bounced back well from the high-speed spin at Maggotts/Becketts in FP3, which damaged the floor and tore his front-left suspension apart. That forced him to revert to the old-specification floor for qualifying. Considering Sauber’s Silverstone struggles, he performed well despite being eliminated in Q1, lapping 0.128s faster than Hulkenberg.
The gamble on taking slicks on the formation lap didn’t pay off, as on lap four he spun and tagged the wall.
Verdict: Pace no problem, but the crashes were.
Started: 20th (pits) Finished: DNS
There are signs of continued progress from Franco Colapinto, although that was shrouded by the crash at Club on his second quick lap in qualifying. A pitlane start was the result of a strategic change of power unit components, or rather it should have been but for him failing even to get into the race after what was called a ‘driveline’ problem when he changed to slicks at the end of the formation lap.
It had echoes of the problem that struck in qualifying in Spain, which suggested that again the driver played a part in getting stuck in gear and unable to move.
Verdict: A disastrous weekend.
