Standout weekends for some underdogs and awful weekends for some big names create a topsy-turvy feeling to Edd Straw's ranking of the Formula 1 field's Azerbaijan Grand Prix efforts.
Agree or disagree? Leave your comments and questions for Edd on this Patreon post and he'll reply in his Q&A video for The Race Members’ Club there later this week.
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: 3rd Finished: 5th
Carlos Sainz understandably monopolised the headlines, but Liam Lawson's weekend was arguably more impressive.
His Q3 performance stood out because he couldn't rely on the time set before the red flag and improved in the final flurry to slot in just over a tenth of a second behind Sainz in third. Although Racing Bulls team-mate Isack Hadjar was close to shading him before a moment at Turn 16, Lawson's calm approach to tricky conditions paid off.
He then didn't put a foot wrong in the race, holding third in the first stint and keeping Kimi Antonelli at bay. Although he was passed by the Mercedes driver after the pitstops, that was a car with a pace advantage. He then kept Yuki Tsunoda at bay to take a superb fifth.
That robustness under pressure and judiciousness in battle nudges him into top spot.
Verdict: Produced his most impressive F1 weekend.
Started: 1st Finished: 1st
While the Red Bull was quick, it wasn't a dominant car and Max Verstappen's excellence in qualifying to take pole position was the foundation stone for his victory.
Just watching the way he at times squeezed the car into the corners, adapting to the grip based on feedback, on that lap showcased his quality.
He then didn't put a foot wrong in the race, neutralising the potential vulnerability of starting on hard tyres by holding the lead into the first corner and acing the restart. Thereafter, it was straightforward, but only because he'd already done all the hard work.
Verdict: An exemplary weekend.
Started: 2nd Finished: 3rd
This was proof of what has been clear with Sainz for some time: that his adaptation to Williams has been relatively smooth but that his pace has too often not turned into results through a combination of misfortune, tyre troubles in qualifying or his own errors.
His qualifying performance was strong, although he had to rely on his first-run time in Q3 after some untidy moments in the middle sector meant his final lap was slower. A little time was left on the table even though challenging Verstappen would be too much to ask, which plays a part in him not taking top spot.
His race was superbly-executed, holding second in the first stint, but he didn't quite have the pace in the first part of his hard-tyre stint to defend against George Russell's overcut.
Verdict: Finally showed what he can do.
Started: 5th Finished: 2nd
Considering Russell was battling a respiratory virus all weekend, one serious enough to put his participation in doubt, he did a superb job.
While you could question whether a fully-fit Russell would have outqualified Antonelli, that was partly down to circumstances as he ran on softs and struggled badly for grip at the end of Q3 compared to Antonelli's mediums.
His attempt to pass Antonelli around the outside of Turn 1 at the restart was injudicious, forcing him to back out and fall behind Tsunoda, but once he repassed the Red Bull he closed on Antonelli and was let past. He then lapped strongly to the end of his hard stint to overcut Sainz for second.
Verdict: Doubly impressive given his condition.
Started: 4th Finished: 4th
What Antonelli desperately needed was a clean weekend on which he showed consistently decent pace and avoided mistakes. That's exactly what he delivered, even if outqualifying Russell perhaps flattered his pace given he was on mediums rather than his Mercedes team-mate's softs on the final Q3 run.
He held firm in battle when Russell first attacked him, but later let him past, and although he proved unable to challenge Sainz for the podium he banked his best result since finishing third in Canada three months ago.
Having been criticised by team principal Toto Wolff last time out, Antonelli was rightly praised for what appeared to be a much-needed ‘reset' weekend.
Verdict: Did exactly what he needed to.
Started: 13th Finished: 11th
Given the Sauber remains a wind-sensitive car, albeit one that is vastly improved from the first phase of the season when it had far bigger aerodynamic sensitivity problems, Bortoleto did a decent job to put the car 13th on the grid. A moment at Turn 16 on his final lap did cost him time, although that was the result of wind that team principal Jonathan Wheatley said “virtually pushed him off the track”.
He passed Fernando Alonso several laps after the restart to run 11th, although given traffic problems after his stop the pace wasn't quite there to threaten for the top 10.
Alex Albon overtook him four laps from home, but this didn't change the result owing to the Williams driver carrying a 10-second penalty.
Verdict: Did a good job with probably the eighth-best car.
Started: 12th Finished: 9th
Lewis Hamilton's pace was genuinely good on the streets of Baku, which made his Q2 elimination particularly surprising. Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc played a part in that with his off at Turn 1, bringing out the yellow flags that meant Hamilton had to abort his first flier on the second run.
He persevered on the same set of softs, with a moment on his second lap caused by wind costing him, then a lack of grip on the third meaning he leaked time. While it would be wrong to say it was impossible to have produced the speed to make Q3 on either of those two laps, circumstances made it difficult.
In the race, he had decent pace and was let past Leclerc in the second stint to try to make the most of his tyre advantage but proved unable to attack Lando Norris ahead. He then backed off too late on the run to the line when instructed to let Leclerc past for eighth, which appeared to be a genuine mistake rather than a deliberate move given how much speed he shed.
Verdict: Good pace despite Q2 exit.
Started: 6th Finished: 6th
This was by some margin Tsunoda's strongest Red Bull weekend in terms of both qualifying and race result, although the one-second deficit to Verstappen on Saturday shows there was still plenty left on the table.
However, the big breakthrough was in race pace as that has been a problem so far and he was certain a real breakthrough had been made.
It was difficult for Tsunoda to prove that in the race given it was spent in traffic, and proving unable to get ahead of Lawson was frustrating. There needs to be more to come, but this was an encouraging all-round step.
Verdict: Progress but not at Verstappen's level.
Started: 11th Finished: 15th
Given the Aston Martin was struggling more in Baku than Monza thanks to the need to carry slightly more downforce and the lack of efficiency, 11th was about as good as it could have got in qualifying even though Alonso lost a little time at Turn 16 - albeit not enough to have earned him a Q3 place.
He was caught out by Oscar Piastri's jumpstart, reacting to it and earning a five-second penalty, which didn't make any difference to his result although perhaps led to an extended first stint on mediums in the hope of some good fortune.
Having initially run 11th before slipping to 12th behind Bortoleto, the other lost places were largely down to strategy and car pace.
Verdict: Jump-start error dents ranking on a decent weekend.
Started: 20th Finished: 14th
Esteban Ocon battled braking problems on Saturday, saying “I was braking 30 or 40 bars less than Ollie [Bearman] and still couldn't get the car stopped”. He was eliminated in Q1 as a result and was subsequently excluded for a rear-wing flexibility infringement that was blamed on a manufacturing error.
After starting on hards, he switched to mediums then back to hards with two stops under the safety car then ran to the end, which was a worthwhile strategic gamble and allowed him to climb to 14th after a tidy enough race, at least after the first-lap contact with Nico Hulkenberg.
Verdict: Saturday braking struggles defined his weekend.
Started: 14th Finished: 17th
Lance Stroll found qualifying frustrating as he was frequently caught out by gusts of wind, one of which was what race engineer Gary Gannon called an “obscene tailwind” at Turn 1 that led to him going off on his final Q2 lap. Even so, he wouldn't have matched Aston Martin team-mate Alonso, so his starting position was not too far off where it would have been even if he'd got the lap in.
Losing a place to Franco Colapinto at the restart proved costly, leading to him being stuck behind the Alpine. He ran long on mediums in the hope of a safety car or red flag that could lead to gains, which didn't work out and led to a lower finishing position than he otherwise would have. But points were never on the cards.
Verdict: Unremarkable weekend in an unremarkable car.
Started: 18th Finished: 18th
Driving an Alpine was a hopeless cause in Azerbaijan, although Pierre Gasly didn't make the most of limited machinery in a car he found inconsistent in qualifying. That led to him qualifying 0.360s behind team-mate Colapinto based on the times both set on their middle Q1 runs as he was caught out by a gust of wind at Turn 4 and took to the escape road on his final run.
Aside from briefly running ahead of Hulkenberg at the start, there was never any realistic chance of making progress and on a hard/medium strategy he won the intra-Alpine battle in the race after a late DRS pass but that didn't count for much given Colapinto was carrying a little damage.
Verdict: Not at his best, even factoring in poor machinery.
Started: 7th Finished: 7th
This was another of those weekends on which Lando Norris was fast, but the execution when it mattered left a little to be desired.
On Friday, he missed out on his long run after clouting the wall early in FP2, and while he survived another brush with the barrier in Q3 he was only seventh out of the eight runners at the end of qualifying. That was partly mitigated by being first on track and not having the best of conditions, but there was time left on the table.
Getting caught out at the restart and dropping behind Leclerc didn't help his cause on Sunday, although on a day when overtaking was difficult for everyone it's perhaps understandable he spent most of the race unable to make passes save for dispatching Leclerc in the second stint.
While the McLaren wasn't dominant, Norris needed to do more even though the slow pitstop did cost him.
Verdict: A big missed opportunity.
Started: 8th Finished: 10th
This was a weekend that turned on two moments at Turn 16, one in Q3 and one during the race on the first complete racing lap that cost him places to Leclerc and Norris, which meant Hadjar wasn't able to join his Racing Bulls team-mate Lawson towards the sharp end.
That wasn't for lack of pace as Hadjar was quick, until things went wrong probably fast enough to have outqualified Lawson.
However, while the wind conditions and the lack of reconnaissance laps thanks to a hydraulic problem manifesting itself are mitigating factors, being untidy at crucial moments limited his horizons - costing him a couple of places on track in the race and perhaps five on the grid.
Verdict: Fast, but Turn 16 wide moments were costly.
Started: 16th Finished: 19th
In limited machinery, Colapinto continued to exhibit the progress he's been making recently by showing good pace and outqualifying Alpine team-mate Gasly.
The downside was that he hit the wall at the end of Q1, necessitating a chassis change, which was the result of a combination of a tailwind and not being able to take to the escape road without risking hitting Gasly (although there was only a white flag on display, not yellow, so he could have completed the lap).
He drove a good race, passing Stroll and then creating a bottleneck in the race thanks to the lack of car pace, although hitting the wall after being clouted by Albon gave him some light damage that compromised him thereafter.
Verdict: Q1 crash hurts his ranking.
Started: 17th Finished: 16th
Hulkenberg's Q1 exit was less a consequence of nosing into the barrier and more down to the root cause of that off, which was problems with front-brake locking. That blighted his final attempt, particularly at Turn 4, and left him four-tenths behind Sauber team-mate Bortoleto.
Although he made a good restart, passing Gasly and Bearman in a double-move into Turn 3 to run 15th, he then got stuck behind Stroll. That became the story of his race despite the Sauber having better race than qualifying pace. He also clashed with Ocon on the opening lap, deemed a racing incident.
Verdict: Outclassed by his team-mate.
Started: 15th Finished: 12th
There was no doubt that Bearman was the faster Haas driver, albeit with the caveat of Ocon's brake troubles, and he had the speed to have been a top-10 threat.
Yet as has so often been the story of his season, that speed was squandered thanks to an error in Q2 when he clipped the Turn 3 wall and damaged the right rear suspension, ending his participation in qualifying.
Any chance he had of turning that pace into race gains was eliminated by first losing a place to Colapinto on the opening lap, then a couple more on the run to Turn 3 after the restart. The pace later in the race was good, but to no avail.
Verdict: Fast but qualifying wall-slap prevented him showing it.
Started: 10th Finished: 9th
Leclerc was frustrated with himself given Baku is a track where he has excelled in the past, and chided himself for underperforming throughout the weekend.
The low point was crashing in Q3, which left him 10th on the grid, and from there the difficulty of overtaking meant he made little progress.
He did jump Norris at the restart, although lost that place again in the second stint, and got ahead of Hadjar when the Racing Bulls driver ran wide, which would have added up to eighth place had Hamilton successfully handed him the place back as planned.
The Ferrari wasn't fast enough to fight at the front, but he finished behind several cars the Ferrari was quicker than, thanks to his qualifying blunder.
Verdict: Q3 shunt means a low ranking.
Started: 19th Finished: 13th
This was a weekend that turned on the “rookie error” on his second push lap on the first run in Q1. Albon misjudged the front-end grip of an improving track, plus the 20km/h (12.4mph) headwind, and clipped the inside wall rather than the expected understeer pushing the car past it. An understandable mistake, but he was right to call it a “bit amateurish”.
Early progress proved difficult as he was stuck in the train behind Colapinto, and after making his second pitstop early to switch back to hards to run to the end he hit the Alpine driver in an ill-judged move. Although Albon continued, that meant a 10-second penalty that turned 11th on the road into 13th.
He had good reason to be kicking himself as he had the pace to have been right up there.
Verdict: “Amateurish” Q1 error ruined his weekend.
Started: 9th Finished: DNF
Although Piastri looked to have put his Friday struggles behind him and unlocked some decent pace, what followed in qualifying and the race was nothing short of a disaster.
He crashed in Q3 after braking too late for Turn 3, which necessitated an overnight chassis change. He took full responsibility for the “two simple errors” in his brief race, misjudging the start by anticipating the lights and ending up in anti-stall, which dropped him to last.
He was then over-optimistic about the grip and dirty-air effect at Turn 5, meaning he ended up in the wall again.
This stands as the most atypical Piastri weekend we've seen in F1.
Verdict: A nightmare aberration of a weekend.
