Edd Straw's 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix F1 driver rankings

The Azerbaijan Grand Prix's Baku city circuit provided a real test of the Formula 1 drivers and their cars - one that was failed by plenty, including the championship leader.

But there were also drivers who excelled - even if one of them didn't end up with the result to show for it.

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

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Started: 1st Finished: 1st

On strong form from the start of the weekend, describing his recent progress as the result of being able to drive more intuitively.

Produced a mighty pole lap and while Kimi Antonelli's mishap gave him a clear run he looked, for the first time since the Barcelona GP, resoundingly the faster Mercedes driver across practice and qualifying.

Controlled the race well in the first stint, then resisted pressure from Verstappen in what he described as a "high-intensity" last stint.

Verdict: The best level he has reached all season.

Started: 8th Finished: 2nd

His qualifying defeat to Isack Hadjar was the consequence of a power unit deficit, which led to parts changes before the race, and yellow-flag timing.

Came within a couple of tenths of winning, with the safety-car fortune partly counteracting the bad luck of qualifying.

Needed team orders to ensure that he stayed ahead of Hadjar in the first stint, but that was largely down to the struggles with the medium-compound Pirellis.

Verdict: Was finally able to show his speed in his relentless chase of Russell after the pitstops.

Started: 7th Finished: DNF

Comfortably headed the midfield in qualifying with what he characterised as the best car balance and confidence he's experienced in Baku for some time.

Led the midfield battle comfortably and was seventh, albeit with the quicker cars of Antonelli and Lando Norris right behind, at the first restart when he was eliminated by Franco Colapinto's blunder.

Had a clear advantage over Colapinto on both qualifying and race pace.

Verdict: An outstanding weekend ruined by someone else's mistake.

Started: 4th Finished: 3rd

Returned to action almost two months after his last race and produced his strongest all-round weekend of the year.

Sensibly, played his way into the weekend and felt that if he'd had an unbroken run in the car he'd have qualified second.

Produced a strong race, quicker than Verstappen in the first stint (albeit on softs while his team-mate struggled on mediums), and ultimately finished 10 seconds behind.

Verdict: Couldn't have been asked to do more on his first weekend back.

Started: 2nd Finished: 4th

Qualifying on the front row represented an overachievement, and although that was largely facilitated by others underdelivering it also required Leclerc to be somewhere close to the maximum of what the car could do.

Sliding to fourth in the race reflected the car's pace, as there was nothing he could do to keep the Red Bulls behind.

Had an edge over Lewis Hamilton.

Verdict: Couldn't have done much better on a difficult weekend for Ferrari.

Started: 13th Finished: 8th

Showed good pace in the Haas, and with both cars seemingly able to perform at the same level did have a slight edge over Ollie Bearman in terms of underlying pace.

Although he understandably lamented his bad luck in Q2, an error on his first run also cost him. That meant he was behind Bearman.

Drove a strong race, taking advantage of the chaos and restarts to climb to seventh. However, being overly cautious coming out of the yellow-flag zone after cutting the inside of the corner allowed Arvid Lindblad to pip him at the line, relegating him to eighth.

Verdict: Strong pace-wise, but should have beaten Lindblad.

Started: 20th Finished: 14th

Was on superb form, characterising this as "one of my best weekends in Baku". That's quite something for a driver with two grand prix victories and a sprint win here at a track where he excels.

He was forced to abort his final qualifying lap, which denied him the possibility of doing something special, although he compounded that by carelessly impeding Oscar Piastri despite warnings.

Was quick in the race, keeping himself in the mix with quicker cars in particular in the first stint and having a huge pace advantage over Valtteri Bottas.

Verdict: But for the needless impeding in qualifying that led to a grid drop, a potential number-one weekend.

Started: 6th Finished: 6th

Struggles with getting the tyres switched on and the lack of a tow in Q3 led to a disappointing qualifying performance, meaning the half-second gap to Leclerc was in no way representative.

Struggled for pace in the race and fell behind the damaged Antonelli in the closing stages.

While there were mitigating factors, the race demonstrated that his pace wasn't quite as good as Leclerc's.

Verdict: A solid but unspectacular weekend.

Started: 11th Finished: 12th

Given Racing Bulls struggled in Baku, his qualifying performance was better than it looked. With a tow, he might have nicked a Q3 place.

Drove a good race, initially holding 10th place before being shuffled back, but was 12th by the time of the safety-car restart where he suffered damage after being hit by Lindblad.

Battled on well, just holding off Gabriel Bortoleto to finish 12th before the Audi driver was given a penalty.

Verdict: Was the better Racing Bulls driver, despite what the race result suggests.

Started: 10th Finished: 9th

Almost made Q3, although had to abort his final lap because of a yellow flag and was relegated to 11th by Colapinto.

Lost a couple of places at the start, but repassed Alex Albon and Lawson to get back into the top 10.

Took the first restart 11th, which became ninth but with damage after hitting Antonelli amid the chaos at Turn 1. Finished ninth despite being passed by Lindblad thanks to being handed a position by Piastri's off.

Verdict: A good weekend, although perhaps didn't have the last tenth Ocon did.

Started: 18th Finished: 11th

Although Audi was struggling, Hulkenberg seemed to struggle a little more than Bortoleto for pace and was always up against it in Q1, even though a yellow flag and the lack of a good tow also cost him.

Ran 16th for much of the first stint before letting Bortoleto by, although he regained that place during the safety-car period having run two laps longer.

Held 10th place once Piastri had made his mistake, but lost out to the superior straightline speed of Carlos Sainz's Williams late on.

Verdict: The main limitation was Audi's lack of pace, although Bortoleto was ultimately quicker.

Started: 17th Finished: 15th

Struggled on his final Q1 run thanks to a lack of grip, which meant he was unable to progress to Q2 having failed to improve on his final run.

Fell behind Hulkenberg at the start, but on the same strategy had a slight advantage in terms of pace and his team-mate was ordered to let him by. However, Hulkenberg moved back ahead in the safety car pitstops after stopping two laps after him.

Took the first restart 16th, and the second 13th, but lost a couple of places and had to fight his way back to 13th. That then turned into 15th when he was penalised for a yellow-flag offence.

Verdict: The faster Audi driver overall, but didn't make the most of that speed.

Started: 3rd Finished: 13th

Conclusively outperformed Norris in qualifying, although the fact he was just 0.001s off Leclerc shows he could have been one place higher on the grid.

Drove a strong first stint to hold the faster Red Bulls at bay, although lost second at the first restart when he was passed by Verstappen.

His lock-up and trip up the escape road ruined his race and, although the McLaren was clearly tricky under braking given Norris made a similar error, that turned a potential podium into 13th place.

Verdict: A good weekend undermined by a single error.

Started: 14th Finished: 10th

Adapted well to the Williams upgrade, but suggested he had "overachieved" by reaching Q3.

Undid his good work in qualifying with a yellow-flag infringement that cost him five places on the grid.

Had a difficult first stint on the mediums and was shuffled back to 18th before becoming the first to pit while under pressure from Perez.

The safety-car timing didn't help his cause, but he gained six places to the chaos at the first restart, taking the second restart 12th and passing Hulkenberg, with Piastri's off giving him another place, to salvage a point.

Verdict: Quick, but yellow-flag penalty and difficult first stint left him relying on luck to score.

Started: 5th Finished: DNF

Underachieved in qualifying, although that was partly down to a fuel injection-related problem that left him slower on the straights than Piastri.

Turn 1 error in the race dropped him from seventh to ninth, meaning he was set to finish at the back of the 'big four' team cars.

Was in no way at fault for the collision that led to his elimination.

Verdict: An unusually untidy weekend.

Started: 16th Finished: 5th

Admitted that "I wasn't 100% there" even before the Q1 error when he hit the inside wall at Turn 1.

Drove a cautious race to recover to fifth place, with the assistance of the safety car, carrying damage in the final phase of the race after contact with Bearman that wasn't of his making.

He described this as his "worst weekend" of the season, which it was given his pace was unusually subdued, but in the wider context of the championship it was a positive that he took a low-risk approach to the race and limited the damage.

Verdict: Limited the damage well on his worst weekend of the season.

Started: 15th Finished: 7th

Hitting the wall in FP2 proved costly, not helping his confidence and leaving him not running in the same aero spec as Lawson.

Struggled on the brakes in qualifying and never looked like a serious Q3 threat.

The collision with Lawson was his fault despite the attempt to blame Ocon, giving both cars damage.

Passed both Haas cars on track, including Ocon on the run to the line on the final lap.

Verdict: The result belies the fact this was not an impressive weekend.

Started: 21st Finished: DNF

After struggling badly on Thursday, still struggled on Friday but slightly less badly.

By his own admission, made an error on his final Q1 lap and visited the Turn 15 escape road in a car that was inconsistent under braking.

Diced with Bottas's Cadillac in the first stint and held his own in that battle despite dire straightline speed before retiring with a power unit problem that Honda said it couldn't see.

Verdict: Barely had any opportunity to show his class thanks to problems.

Started: 22nd Finished: DNF

With power unit penalties and a dreadfully uncompetitive car, qualifying was always a write-off, although he didn't make the most of difficult circumstances on Friday after a Turn 1 wall-clip in FP3 then a couple of offs in Q1.

His race was short-lived, complaining of instability before being instructed to retire on lap eight with a water pressure problem.

It's difficult to measure his pace fairly as, although he never seemed quite as quick as Alonso, he was close behind in his short-lived race.

Verdict: Struggled but in impossible circumstances.

Started: 19th Finished: 16th

His weekend started badly with Thursday struggles, although things improved overnight with floor and damper changes.

Qualifying didn't go well, with a time that put him 21st on the grid deleted for a yellow-flag offence, but regardless he never had anything like Perez's pace.

His race pace was so poor, leading to him falling away from Perez dramatically from the start, that there must have been problems.

He suggested his late crash was down to some strange behaviour under braking related to the ERS that meant he lacked rear brakes, although there's not yet a clear explanation for the cause and it wasn't his first excursion.

Verdict: A terrible weekend, but exactly how much of that was down to the clear car problems is unclear.

Started: 12th Finished: DNF

His Q2 elimination, 0.372s off Sainz, was partly down to the lack of tow and a bad downshift at Turn 6.

Briefly ran 11th before being passed by Bearman, with the recovering Antonelli inevitably getting ahead. That put him ahead of three drivers who scored points: Ocon, Lindblad and Sainz.

Turn 5 crash put him out of the race, with the team saying there was no problem in an off that Albon described as "odd".

Verdict: Was having a solid race before his crash ruined it.

Started: 9th Finished: DNF

By his own admission, he lacked the confidence of Gasly on the brakes in particular and lacked his team-mate's single lap pace.

After making Q3 with a late-Q2 effort to knock out Bearman, he struggled with a lock-up giving him "crazy" vibrations and tow problems stretching the gap to a misleading 0.916s - although he never looked like he could get to Gasly's level even with a perfect session.

Had a solid first 30 laps, running ninth then 10th after the recovering Antonelli inevitably passed him. Again, the pace deficit to Gasly showed as he gradually fell away from his team-mate.

Held 10th at the restart and was still well-placed for a decent result despite his pace struggles, but got it disastrously wrong at the restart, eliminating himself, Gasly and Norris.

Verdict: Was battling a pace deficit to Gasly even before his disastrous restart mistake.