The climax of the Hungarian Grand Prix meant all eyes were on the fight for victory in the closing stages, and in the immediate aftermath of another all-McLaren battle.
But that didn't completely overshadow what was going on behind - with two drivers from Formula 1 2025's intense midfield scrap enjoying particularly strong weekends.
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: 7th Finished: 6th
For the fourth qualifying session in the last five, Bortoleto took a car that was Q2 pace and got it into Q3 thanks to getting the most out of the Sauber while others dropped the ball. In particular, it was impressive he hauled it up to seventh in Q3 despite the changing conditions that meant "the balance completely shifted".
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He followed that up by not putting a foot wrong in the race, assisted by Hulkenberg's strategy protecting him from those who stopped earlier, also showing he wasn't willing to back down in battle against Max Verstappen early on and taking his best grand prix finish.
The car didn't have the pace to have beaten Alonso's Aston Martin, meaning Bortoleto got everything he could out of the ever-improving Sauber.
Verdict: An outstanding weekend.
Started: 5th Finished: 5th
Alonso sat out FP1 to rest a muscular injury in his back, albeit one he didn't feel held him back once he was back in the cockpit from FP2 onwards. He showed good pace throughout and even flirted with pole position, losing time in the final corners as the rear tyres had perhaps been overexerted earlier in the lap.
He drove an excellent race, controlling the pace when he needed to, pushing on when he had to, and avoiding squandering time battling needlessly with Lando Norris and George Russell, whom he could never have beaten.
Verdict: Made the most of vastly stronger Aston Martin.
Started: 1st Finished: 4th
Leclerc is much more confident in the upgraded Ferrari, which he says allows him to "play a little bit more with the limits without it biting you". The result was a shock pole position as the Ferrari snapped into the right window on the final run of Q3 having felt "horrible" prior to that.
He did everything right in the first part of the race, staying clear of Piastri and holding the advantage into the second stint despite some problems with clipping - where the battery can't keep supplying power and top speed drops as a result.
However, as Ferrari's problems set in he was powerless to keep the car in a podium position.
That meant he didn't get the result his driving performance deserved, although his overly-aggressive defending against Russell, which earned him a five-second penalty that didn't affect the result, does count against him.
Verdict: On top form, moving under braking aside.
Started: 2nd Finished: 2nd
You wouldn't blame Piastri for being frustrated to finish second. While both McLaren drivers underachieved in qualifying, as even with the conditions swinging against McLaren the team reckoned the pace was still there to have beaten Leclerc, Piastri shaded Norris by 0.015s then maintained track position at the start.
While staying on what appeared to be the stronger strategy by attempting the undercut on Leclerc, and the resulting two-stopper, was the logical move this ultimately cost him in his battle with Norris. He made a good fist of the chase to the end, although came perilously close to hitting his team-mate with the penultimate-lap attack.
Verdict: Justifiably frustrated to lose out to Norris.
Started: 4th Finished: 3rd
Russell was much happier with the Mercedes thanks to reverting to the pre-Imola rear suspension specification and was among the group of drivers who perhaps all could have nicked pole with a perfect Q3 lap in tricky conditions.
His race drive was well-executed on a two-stopper, which looked set to earn him fourth place until Leclerc's fading pace made it relatively straightforward to pick him off to bag third place.
Verdict: Revitalised by suspension-spec change.
Started: 3rd Finished: 1st
Norris executed his one-stop strategy superbly, doing an excellent job to keep the rapidly closing Piastri at bay in the closing stages. In that regard, it was a well-earned win.
However, you cannot disregard the fact that the strategic opportunity presented to him was a consequence of underachieving fractionally more than Piastri in qualifying then losing ground at the start. That allowed him to take the gamble on the one-stop, which put him in a position to beat Piastri.
The two McLaren drivers were closely-matched on performance, but Norris had marginally the less impressive weekend of the two despite the better result.
Verdict: Circumstances presented the opportunity to win.
Started: 6th Finished: 7th
While the results in qualifying and the race themselves were eye-catching, what mattered most was this was one of Stroll's strongest weekends in terms of his performance level relative to Alonso.
He effectively matched him in qualifying, lapping just 0.017s slower, then drove a similar race, albeit to finish two places behind his team-mate.
His outright race pace was fractionally off Alonso's, and the fact he lost a place to Bortoleto at the start and ended up seventh takes the edge off what was probably his most convincing all-round weekend of the year.
Verdict: Not quite at Alonso's level, but close.
Started: 9th Finished: 8th
Won the intra-team battle by outpacing Hadjar by a tenth in Q3, which didn't look on the cards based on the rest of the weekend until that point.
While both drivers struggled in the changing conditions and felt there was more, it was Lawson who did marginally the better job, in particular at the end of the lap. However, by his own admission he could have been a place or two higher had he delivered the maximum in Q3.
His drive to eighth was a strong one, jumping back ahead of Verstappen - who he was ahead of briefly in the opening laps - thanks to one-stopping. He then did an excellent job to cover the Red Bull driver in the closing stages, even inching away in the final laps.
Verdict: Qualified decently, raced excellently.
Started: 8th Finished: 9th
Verstappen found the Red Bull to be lacking in grip throughout the weekend.
He made some gains early on, but with the Red Bull having good pace very early in stints before dropping off badly he couldn't sustain that progress. That led to a lap-17 pitstop that put him into traffic, then a vague attempt to extend the hard stint to the end that meant he lost ground when he made his second stop.
He spent the final part of the race stuck behind Lawson, falling away from his old team-mate in the final five laps.
Verdict: Grip troubles didn't allow him to do his usual magic.
Started: 13th Finished: 14th
On paper, qualifying might look disappointing but, given the Williams never showed the pace to be a top-10 threat, getting it into Q2 and lapping almost six tenths faster than struggling Albon in Q1 was a good performance after getting the tyres into the right window for that run.
That followed the reversion to a more familiar set-up after various experiments through practice for both Williams drivers made life more difficult.
He gained a place at the start to run 12th on softs, and was on target for 13th place when Pierre Gasly overcommitted at Turn 2 in an attempt to repass the Williams, shoving Sainz off track. That allowed Hulkenberg past, relegating Sainz to 14th.
Verdict: A decent weekend in a limited Williams.
Started: 10th Finished: 11th
Hadjar looked the quicker Racing Bulls driver over a lap, but an untidy end to his sole Q3 effort, as he struggled to deal with the changing conditions, meant he ended up a tenth slower than Lawson. He felt seventh place was achievable but for what he called “a very poor lap”.
Bearman running wide at Turn 12 and flinging gravel at him didn't help as he ran 11th in the first stint, although he overtook the Haas after his pitstop. However, Antonelli capitalised on a big undercut to get ahead then kept Hadjar out of the points to the finish.
Verdict: A better Q3 would likely have meant points.
Started: 15th Finished: 10th
Mercedes reverting to the pre-Imola rear suspension restored Antonelli's confidence to the point where he looked a certainty to make Q3. Unfortunately, he had a “horrible” lap on his one new set of softs in Q2 that was deleted, dropping him from 11th to 15th thanks to having to rely on his first lap.
That bad run transformed his results potential, although he drove a good race to finish 10th on a one-stopper, keeping Hadjar - on younger hard Pirellis - covered in the final stint.
Verdict: Q2 cost him badly, but his confidence is back.
Started: 20th (pits) Finished: 17th
Falling in Q1 looked disastrous, but as he was only a tenth-and-a-half off Verstappen as both drivers struggled for grip this represented not only his best qualifying performance for Red Bull but was also closer than you would expect to his team-mate. As Tsunoda himself said, "that's positive, and it's showing that I'm having progress".
Unfortunately, starting from the pitlane after power unit component changes meant he was always on a hiding to nothing, with the attacking move to take softs for the second stint committing him to a two-stopper. He never climbed higher than 14th on a frustrating afternoon.
Verdict: Narrowed deficit to Verstappen encouraging.
Started: 18th Finished: 13th
After sitting out FP1 to allow Paul Aron to run, Hulkenberg felt confident with the car heading into Q1. Unfortunately, he struggled with the balance - in particular the rear end - come qualifying and ended up half a second slower than his team-mate. That meant elimination.
His race didn't go to plan, as although the pace was there to make gains and he executed his early undercut well after starting on softs to finish 13th, a penalty for a jump start when putting the car in gear, and poor track position, ensured there was no chance of points.
Verdict: A frustrating weekend.
Started: 19th Finished: 15th
Albon had a nightmare in Q1, ending up 0.571s slower than Sainz despite a lap he felt "wasn't even that bad" as he "just had no grip" as a result of the tyre preparation not being right. That was despite both Williams drivers committing to three runs in Q1 to try to adapt to the set-up overhaul from FP3.
The early stages of the race went well for Albon, who climbed to 16th on the first lap, then jumped Ocon in the pits. But that's where the progress ended as he spent much of the rest of the race in a DRS train.
Verdict: At least made gains in the race.
Started: 14th Finished: 18th
For the first time since he took over the second Alpine seat, Colapinto's pace at times compared favourable to Gasly's on Friday and Saturday. He duly converted that into the fourth Q2 place of his eight outings, although was disappointed not to do better once into the second stage of qualifying.
His race was a tough one, but defined primarily by a combination of the start (slipping back to 18th), being passed by Gasly on lap five as a result of a mistake in the final corner, and losing a combined total of 13 seconds in the pits to problematic right-rear tyre changes.
Verdict: As he put it, "not a good race in general".
Started: 11th Finished: DNF
He was clearly the faster Haas driver over a lap thanks to the fact that, as has been the trend in recent races, he could tolerate a little more front end and therefore turn-in instability. Bearman should have made Q3, but several tenths lost in the final couple of corners cost him.
He jumped ahead of Hadjar at the start to run 10th and held position in the first stint before making his pitstop on lap 30, despite struggling with tyre deg. However, he was overtaken by Hadjar, having been instructed to increase lift and coast, then had a wide moment at Turn 4 that damaged the floor - as team principal Ayao Komatsu pointed out, the third time that happened during the weekend.
This later forced his retirement at a time when he was destined for 11th place.
Verdict: Speed undermined by errors.
Started: 16th Finished: 19th
This was one of those weekends Gasly occasionally has where in reaching for performance that probably isn't in the car through various bold set-up directions he tripped himself up.
Perhaps you can't blame him for that given the Alpine simply wasn't at the races in Hungary, but it left him a tenth slower than Colapinto in Q1 - albeit with the caveat that front wing damage was later detected that led to a pre-race change.
Considering the limitations of the car, his race pace was reasonable as he did battle on a one-stopper with stronger cars. However, his ranking is hurt by overdoing it while trying to repass Sainz at Turn 2, leading to wheel-banging and a 10-second penalty that dropped him to last in the final result.
Verdict: Fought hard in a losing cause.
Started: 17th Finished: 16th
Ocon's poor qualifying performance, lapping 0.273s off Bearman, meant he was always on the back foot going into the race. That deficit lay in the well-established pattern that he can't handle the same turn-in sharpness and resulting instability that Bearman can.
"I was having issues with the stability, if I went to Ollie's [set-up] I can't take any corner," said Ocon of Bearman's ability to dial in more front end to make the car quicker.
However, that perhaps made it easier to manage the tyres in the race, albeit with Sunday not going Ocon's way with a fractionally slow pitstop costing him a place to Albon. His marathon 55-lap stint on hards didn't pay off, but was executed as well as it could have been.
Verdict: Qualifying struggle meant points were never on.
Started: 12th Finished: 12th
Was Hamilton really "useless", as he branded himself after qualifying at the Hungaroring? No, he simply wasn't at his best during the phase of qualifying in which Ferrari struggled, which left him a quarter of a second off Leclerc and eliminated in Q2.
He certainly didn't deliver the goods, with a slight moment of instability into Turn 11 then getting too aggressive on the throttle exiting Turn 13, but it was a smaller-scale failure than Hamilton himself suggested.
Wheelspin at the start meant he was jumped by Sainz, with the attempt to gain positions around the outside at Turn 2 leading to a wide moment that allowed Antonelli past. After finishing the first lap 14th, Hamilton was always on for a long afternoon, ending up 12th thanks to jumping Sainz and Bearman's retirement.
But on a weekend where Leclerc got so much out of the car, Hamilton's disappointing qualifying and losses early in the race add up to a terrible ranking.
Verdict: Badly needs the August break.
