Edd Straw's 2026 Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia F1 driver rankings

Wet weather, tyre choices, software bugs and safety cars all added up to Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia chaos at Sepang.

That makes assessing each individual drivers' performance even more critical versus the circumstances facing them, to get a better picture of who excelled - and who didn't - amid the furore.

Here's Edd Straw's final verdict on the field in Sepang:

Want to quiz Edd on his driver rankings? Sign up to The Race Members' Club to do exactly that - and ask your questions in reply to this post.

Champions-tier members can also try their hand at putting their own driver rankings together for Edd to react to!

Started: 1st · Finished: 1st

Pole position never looked in doubt, topping Q1 and Q2 then delivering two laps good enough to head Q3 with a final advantage of 0.3s.

Losing the lead at the start, primarily down to the Red Bull's trickiness off the line that meant "the engine just completely died", was the only negative of a superbly executed race in which he carved his way to the front well, made the most of the right strategy and didn't put a foot wrong.

The emphatic pace advantage over Hadjar showed that, while the RB22 was performing well, Verstappen was also extracting everything from it with his confidence in attacking the braking zones and corner entries in qualifying particularly standing out.

Verdict: Pole position and victory never looked in doubt.

Started: 2nd · Finished: 3rd

Delivered the best-possible result for Ferrari in qualifying with second on the grid, and repeated that trick in the race once you factored in the early losses to taking the race-start proper on slicks.

Had a pace advantage over Leclerc throughout Saturday and Sunday.

While his recovery in the race was assisted by circumstances, he had the pace to make the most of it and would surely have been second - and a potential threat to Verstappen - with a straightforward race.

Verdict: Fast and pulled off a strong recovery drive that showed his pace.

Started: 12th · Finished: 8th

With the Aston Martin-Honda package performing well, Alonso made the most of it in qualifying to put himself well up in Q2, which he described as a "miracle".

Taking the start proper on slicks meant he was in an unpromising position, but he showed consistently good pace, including on the hards, to recover to a points finish.

Drove intelligently in the post-safety-car sprint to the flag to take eighth, holding off Lando Norris's McLaren.

Verdict: For once had a modestly competitive Aston Martin and showed what he can do.

Started: 11th · Finished: 7th

Top of those who exited after Q2, even with a tow from Lindblad, was a decent performance and, given the disorder in the early part of the race, Lawson deserves credit for having an iron grip on the midfield-leading slot throughout.

Although he ran as high as fourth, the cars he finished behind were all significantly quicker, meaning realistically he achieved the best-possible result.

Verdict: Got the most out of tricky weekend for Racing Bulls.

Started: 3rd · Finished: 2nd

The small error at Turn 6 that led to his laptime being deleted, forcing an extra run and limiting him to one set of softs for Q3, potentially cost him a front-row shot given his compromised runplan.

While the Mercedes didn't have the pace to threaten Verstappen, any vague hope Antonelli had of closing the gap after passing Russell vanished when he had his wide moment at the final corner and ended up taking a bite of the pit entry road.

Conclusively the faster Mercedes driver, and emerged with what was probably the best-possible result in the race - although he did have a spell behind Russell after being passed after his unsuccessful defence of the lead against Verstappen.

Verdict: Another weekend where he was fast and got a good result, but had a few rough edges.

Started: 6th · Finished: 6th

The comparison with his team-mate is complicated by Norris's straightline speed disadvantage team principal Andrea Stella couldn't explain but characterised as "possibly between one and two tenths of a second" after qualifying.

Didn't maximise what was possible in qualifying, ending up five-thousandths behind Norris after an untidy Turn 2 on his second run meant he had to rely on his first-run time.

Had a decent Sunday, describing it as "a hell of a lot to finish in the same place I started" and produced a strong spell on the hard Pirellis in particular on his way to a result that was probably about right for the car.

Verdict: Final Q3 run was the only notable negative on a good weekend.

Started: 21st · Finished: 13th

Given he already had a five-place grid penalty, Alpine opted to take new power unit components that were always going to be required at some point, which locked Colapinto into starting on the back row.

Although Colapinto's practice running was biased more towards race preparation, he showed he had good underlying speed in Q1 by matching Pierre Gasly's time.

Colapinto's race pace was good, but he had one of those races where he was often on the wrong side of strategy decisions - starting on slicks, pitting just before the VSC was deployed for his third stop - which meant he was unable to recover to the points.

Verdict: Stronger than the on-paper results suggest.

Started: 13th · Finished: 17th

Sainz was delighted with his qualifying performance on a track that didn't play to the strengths of the Williams.

Ran in the points and as high as sixth early on, but while the car wouldn't have had the pace to stay there his slide was hastened by being understeered into by Gabriel Bortoleto and spinning.

Was never going to finish in the points, but was denied being perhaps five places higher by the Bortoleto collision.

Verdict: Showed good speed, crucially without repeating any of his recent errors.

Started: 22nd · Finished: 10th

Carried a back-of-the-grid penalty into the weekend, so his mission in qualifying was primarily to reach Q2 then be used to provide a tow for Lawson, which he did well.

Recovered from starting at the back thanks to taking the start proper on inters, a team call, and was in contention for a minor points position throughout, although didn't always appear to be on top of the tyre management.

Outwitted Nico Hulkenberg in their late battle to secure the final point.

Verdict: Salvaged a point from unpromising circumstances.

Started: 7th · Finished: 20th

Never looked to have the pace to match Antonelli in qualifying, which was proved by the 0.240s Q3 deficit despite having two runs compared to his team-mate's one.

Capitalised on Antonelli's fight with Verstappen to pass his team-mate with a well-executed move, although he didn't have the pace to hold onto it.

The power unit problem that cost third place late on was entirely out of his hands.

Verdict: Unlucky in the race but a step behind Antonelli all weekend.

Started: 20th · Finished: 19th

Perez's weekend can only be evaluated within the context of him running not only the old-specification Ferrari ADUO 1 power unit, but also it being a tired one that didn't even give its optimum performance.

Allowing for the power unit disadvantage, Perez's pace stacked up well against Bottas when you adjust for that.

The Cadillac was the slowest car by some margin, so it's no surprise Perez finished last.

Verdict: Considering the ageing power unit, a good weekend.

Started: 8th · Finished: 5th

Had a consistent pace deficit to Verstappen, with the 0.428s gap in qualifying representative.

Although he had a five-place grid penalty for taking a new ICE, Hadjar ran fourth in the first stint but never showed anything like the pace of Verstappen - struggling for grip throughout, and having a formation-lap off for good measure.

While team principal Laurent Mekies obliquely referred to the fact that "not everything went well with his car", there was no clear explanation for the lack of pace - although slipping from third at the final safety-car restart to fifth behind the two Ferraris was attributed by Hadjar to the battery being lower on energy than it needed to be.

Verdict: A solid result on paper, but was not at anything like Verstappen's level all weekend.

Started: 14th · Finished: 12th

Matched Alonso in Q1, but couldn't go with him in Q2 and ended up 0.346s slower.

After switching from slicks to intermediates for the start proper, made some progress but struggled with his second hard stint and lost ground.

Ultimately, didn't quite have the same all-round pace as Alonso (although there were encouraging patches) and couldn't quite force himself into the points battle.

Verdict: Had a reasonable weekend in a car that at least gave him something to race for.

Started: 16th · Finished: 14th

What was characterised as a set-up error - described as an "operational" mistake by the team - that ruined FP2 put him on the back foot heading into Saturday.

Eliminated in Q1 after finally finding a good balance for the final run, which was enough to beat Ocon by a quarter of a second.

Slicks for the start put Bearman on the back foot and, given the car pace, it's no surprise he never ran higher than 13th - with the timing of the VSC allowing him to finish ahead of Ocon.

Verdict: Did a decent job considering the Friday problem and race circumstances.

Started: 17th · Finished: 15th

While elimination in Q1 was no great surprise, Ocon ended up behind Bearman having been the first driver to complete his last lap on a rapidly-improving track surface.

Thrust himself into points contention with a good first racing lap and the right call to use intermediates.

Spent much of the race trying to defy competitive gravity, but a combination of pushing too hard once he switched to hards, running wide in the pit-entry road prior to a slightly slow stop, and a green-flag pit stop when others hit the VSC that was deployed shortly afterwards, added up to 15th place.

Verdict: At least kept the uncompetitive Haas in the points mix for some of the race.

Started: 15th · Finished: 11th

While Hulkenberg's underlying pace meant he might have had a shot at joining Bortoleto in Q3, a mistake on his final Q1 lap meant he was eliminated.

Pitted before the start proper to bail out of starting on softs before becoming the first to choose to switch back to slicks.

Was in the mix for points, but lost out late on to Lindblad.

Verdict: Fell short of the points finish that was on offer.

Started: 18th · Finished: DNF

Complained throughout the weekend about not having optimum parts available.
Made an error on his last Q1 run, which cost any chance of joining Sainz in Q2.

Although he ran seventh early on, Albon's race was troubled even before he retired with a gearbox problem - thanks to a short stint after flatspotting the softs and brake struggles.

Verdict: There were clearly problems, but also a few errors.

Started: 4th · Finished: 4th

Qualifying gradually slipped away from him as it progressed thanks to what he called an "aggressive" set-up choice that meant he was struggling badly with rear-tyre overheating.

Locked up and clipped the back of Hulkenberg's Audi on the first racing lap, forcing a pitstop for a new nose. While being on slicks was a mitigating factor, he was aware grip was low.

Recovered well in the race, albeit with the help of circumstances, but struggled for balance, likely as a carryover from the set-up decisions made before qualifying.

Verdict: Didn't get the best out of the car and made a significant early-race error.

Started: 10th · Finished: 18th

Did a superb job in qualifying to make Q3, although the pace was probably not in the car to have beaten Gasly.

Pitted for intermediates after initially intending to take the start proper on softs, but a misjudgement in low-grip conditions while battling with Sainz that led to him understeering into the Williams meant he had to pit for a new nose and was hit with a 10-second penalty.

Floor damage from the impact meant the rest of his race was compromised.

Verdict: Qualifying was superb, but early-race mistake ruined his chances.

Started: 9th · Finished: 16th

Made the most of the Alpine in qualifying, comfortably leading the midfield and putting the car in the highest possible starting position.

Threw away ninth place and lost places to an off on slicks while attempting to warm the tyres prior to the start proper, although that likely just hastened his drop back.

Never recovered from the early losses and ended up not helped by a green-flag pitstop when others were able to stop under VSC, making this race a missed opportunity.

Verdict: Strong in qualifying, but off before the start proper set the negative trajectory.

Started: 5th · Finished: 9th

Qualified as well as he could have done, especially considering a straightline deficit rated by the team as 0.1-0.2s compared to Piastri.

The error under the safety car when he had to run into the gravel at Turn 1 in avoidance of the cars ahead - including Piastri - was a needless one for a driver of his experience.

Although he recovered to ninth having dropped to 11th with his mistake, after picking off Lindblad and Hulkenberg, he never managed to mount a serious attack on Alonso in the brief chase at the end of the race.

Verdict: Although his pace was good, the safety-car off tanks his rating given it was an amateur mistake.

Started: 19th · Finished: DNF

Ran the Ferrari ADUO 2 power unit for the first time, which locked in a car-performance advantage over Perez for the weekend.

Felt he extracted the maximum from the car in Q1, although his pace advantage over Perez was down to speed on the straights.

Had a dismal race, accepting responsibility for the choice to start on slicks (although he was far from the only one) but spinning into the gravel on lap eight.

Verdict: Early-race spin into retirement turned a solid weekend into a bad one.

How do the rankings work?

The 22 drivers are 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 11 cars fundamentally having different performance potential and ‘luck’ (i.e. 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.