The unlikely best driver of F1's Hungarian GP weekend

A driver who qualified and finished 12th appears on the surface to be a strange pick for the best Formula 1 driver of the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend.

But Edd Straw's driver rankings have never been about the results on paper; instead, they look beyond the machinery to pick out the real best performers across the whole weekend.

It's why they always create so much discussion, and as ever, Edd tackled questions from The Race Members' Club in a Q&A podcast episode this week with Val Khorounzhiy - The Race's own MotoGP rider rankings chief.

You can listen to the full podcast, or watch it if you prefer, but below you'll find a taste of Edd's explanations for his most contentious choices.

Remember, if you'd like to ask questions about his rankings during the second half of the 2026 F1 season, make sure you're signed up to The Race Members' Club.

Why was Gasly first?

Edd ranked Pierre Gasly the best driver of the weekend, after he outqualified Franco Colapinto by just under two tenths on Saturday then finished three places ahead of his Alpine team-mate in 12th on Sunday.

So what was Edd's logic?

"Gasly wasn't that large on the radar in terms of #1 ranking, but there were a lot of people this weekend, and partly that's just the nature of the Hungaroring as a track, who had little errors and blemishes that held them back," Edd explained.

"Gasly didn't outdrive the car, but [then] you can't outdrive cars. It was the seventh-fastest car by some margin, by which I mean it wasn't up there with Racing Bulls and Audi.

"He finished relatively close to that group [1.4 seconds behind Gabriel Bortoleto's 11th-place Audi], battling for Class B victory ahead of him in a slower car. He did have that cheap VSC [virtual safety car] pitstop later on, but it was the seventh-fastest car, and he put it at the ceiling of what it was.

"He's one of the only drivers you can look at and say, 'Yeah, there's no way he could have qualified higher, no way he could have finished higher', and he was closer to the quicker cars ahead than maybe he should have been, and drove a clean race.

"He sort of worked his way to the front as others found reasons and blemishes not to be there.

"So, it was a surprise one for me in the end, but often you are looking at that - who is at the ceiling of their car, and not doing things to make life harder for them - and it seemed to point to Gasly in the end."

Edd added: "If you translate his performance into the best car, then it's a win from pole."

Did Piastri deserve fifth?

Oscar Piastri's weekend was a tough one to judge.

On the one hand, he was clearly slower than Lando Norris throughout. But on the other, he was denied a victory shot because of the contact with Carlos Sainz and then the gearbox issue that forced him to retire.

Edd placed him fifth, two spots behind McLaren team-mate Norris, and ahead of the likes of Fernando Alonso (sixth) and Kimi Antonelli (11th).

"You factor in the pace, and Norris was a step forward. But I do value that thing of being able to, on a bad weekend, put yourself in a position to win the race," Edd said.

"Piastri was really hanging on. Particularly the first stint, he was sort of relatively happy. Norris behind was still quicker, but he felt he had it covered. Then on the hard, he was really struggling.

"I do value that ability to win when you are struggling and Piastri did do a lot of what he needed to do to be in a position to win. Now, if the Sainz thing hadn't happened, you can only guess how it might have played out.

"It was still close in terms of that overcut happening, and that would change it. But the fact is it didn't. Not only did he have the contact with Sainz, but also Sainz then held him up all the way to the chicane as well. So it was a significant time loss that made a difference.

"But I think if you're taking a driver, you're saying you are a step slower than your team-mate, and he still manages to get into the lead, to outthink him on the first lap, and to lead 25 laps of the race. He effectively had control of the race until that Sainz incident. I think that counts for something.

"Yes, it's not as impressive as if you're in a slower car and doing it. But the Piastri-McLaren combination was slower. There were also a few circumstances contributing to that.

"Five of them missed FP1 [Leonardo Fornaroli drove in Piastri's place, for example]. Most of them said it was quite a big disadvantage given the conditions, etc.

"I did give Piastri a bump for how well he executed in really difficult circumstances. You cannot underline how uncomfortable a position it is for a competitor to be at the front, knowing they're struggling, knowing they're slower, and trying to hang on for dear life.

"Yes, it's not the ideal way. Ideally, you want them to come to be quickest, absolute maximum of the car, nailing everything. But that wasn't what Piastri was doing.

"Until the Sainz moment, he was on a trajectory where he could just, by the skin of his teeth, have won that grand prix, and that does carry weight for me."

How our Champions ranked the drivers

The Champions tier of The Race Members' Club, as ever, had the chance to rank the drivers. Here's the top 10 they produced for Hungary (with Edd's ranking in brackets).

10 Isack Hadjar (14th)
9 Fernando Alonso (6th)
8 Arvid Lindblad (9th)
7 Charles Leclerc (12th)
6 Oscar Piastri (5th)
5 Liam Lawson (8th)
4 Kimi Antonelli (11th)
3 Nico Hulkenberg (2nd)
2 Lando Norris (3rd)
1 Max Verstappen (4th)

Their votes gave first place to Max Verstappen, who was only fourth in Edd's ranking.

For Edd, both Verstappen and Norris's rankings suffered from errors they made. Verstappen spun at the final corner in Q3 on Saturday while Norris's error was going off at Turn 4 while trying to chase down Piastri - whom he'd lost the lead to at the start - in the second stint.

"Verstappen was ahead of Norris till quite late on [in Edd's rankings process]. I was just trying to work out how much you punished that," Edd explained.

"There was one small aero part that was changed overnight after qualifying because it had a little bit of damage on it [a floor vane extension piece] and that car is quite sensitive to that sort of thing.

"But in the end, it is still [a question of]: you've got the car you've got, haven't you? And if there's an area that's not 100% down to something that has outright failed and you can't account for, then that does cost you.

"Verstappen had lost time on that lap. So I think he was doing a little bit of a Hail Mary in the last corner to see what happened and he paid the price for it.

"[It was a case of] balancing up that - Norris, who was phenomenally quick, just as Verstappen was - with how much you do weigh up Norris losing the lead and having to labour a little bit to try to win that race despite his pace versus Verstappen in that area, and then Verstappen having a great race and then passing [Lewis] Hamilton?

"It was almost impossible to split them really. I swapped them around a few times later on and in the end, you just have to make the decision. I just decided the spin ultimately was sort of a very, very clear and clear and obvious error [to borrow] the VAR football phraseology.

"What was significant is both Norris and Verstappen did weaken their candidacy to be first, with those respective errors."

Want to ask questions of Edd's next driver rankings? Make sure you're signed up to The Race Members' Club.

Edd will also be releasing a special follow-up podcast, exclusive to The Race Members' Club, where he tackles questions from Champions on his rankings