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Quiz Ben on his Austrian Grand Prix F1 driver rankings
🕑 Added 2025-06-30 15:39:33 +0000 UTCBen steps in for Edd on F1 driver rankings duty for the Austrian Grand Prix - and that means he's poised to answer your questions about his judgements too.
Started: 1st Finished: 1st
This was Norris at his best over one lap on a circuit that really suits his momentum-driven style, which suggests McLaren's alternative front suspension configuration is finally giving Norris the steering feedback he's been craving.
He was calm, composed and unrelenting every time he hit the track - staying a step ahead of Oscar Piastri through practice and qualifying even with the disadvantage of skipping FP1 so McLaren could run rookie Alex Dunne in his car.
Norris held firm under extreme Piastri pressure in the first stint of the race and showed real racing smarts in the way he cut back underneath his team-mate at Turn 3 where Piastri did momentarily take the lead.
This was probably Norris's most resilient performance of the season, though a heavy trip through the Turn 10 gravel and the constant pleading for help from the team as Piastri turned the screw suggests things were never perfectly under control.
Verdict: An important result in the context of the title fight.
Started: 3rd Finished: 2nd
Piastri would be about fifth or sixth on this list but for the fact he put Norris under so much concerted pressure in the race.
Everything just looked that bit harder for Piastri through practice and qualifying, and it's difficult to see how he could have taken pole even without yellow flags denying him that crucial final lap in Q3.
But the race is what counts most, and in this one he was excellent - clearing Charles Leclerc's Ferrari quickly, putting Norris under sustained threat in the first and third stints, and stretching McLaren's so-called 'papaya rules' to their limit.
Verdict: Second best, but absolutely hounded Norris.
Started: 6th Finished: 6th
There were several things to be impressed by in this Lawson performance, from that decisive 0.185s advantage over Racing Bulls team-mate Isack Hadjar in Q2, to being the only one of the midfield interlopers to actually nail his single Q3 run - a lap that was good enough to squeak him ahead of the Q3 banker lap of Max Verstappen's Red Bull.
Although he felt lucky to avoid getting completely taken out by the Kimi Antonelli Turn 3 missile in the way Verstappen did, Lawson's race was otherwise superb in the way he executed a one-stop strategy that was beyond most others.
And relentless too in dealing with having Fernando Alonso's Aston Martin, on the same strategy, in his DRS for pretty much the entirety. Oh, and Lawson finished only five seconds behind George Russell's Mercedes for good measure.
Verdict: A long overdue result and complete weekend.
Started: 2nd Finished: 3rd
Leclerc is a bit like Norris in the way this circuit seems to suit his driving style, and his weekend played out similarly too - only with a lower performance ceiling imposed by the Ferrari and much less of a challenge from the sister car in the race.
In his own words this was a "boring" drive for Leclerc, once he'd conceded the first corner to Norris and been overtaken on his outside by Piastri's McLaren.
With Verstappen and Russell both out of the picture for different reasons it's difficult to benchmark Leclerc against anyone but his team-mate Lewis Hamilton - who to be fair was a bit closer than usual, in qualifying especially.
Verdict: Achieved the maximum result possible.
Started: 5th Finished: 5th
Russell expected this race - long corners, rough asphalt and high temperatures - to be a struggle for the car that won so effectively in Canada, and so it proved, though he said the race was even worse than he imagined as Mercedes admitted to a mechanical set-up experiment that backfired.
In this difficult context, Russell did about all that could be expected with the car at his disposal, being stuck basically in a void between the upgraded Ferraris and the midfield.
Finishing closer to Lawson's Racing Bulls than to Hamilton's Ferrari wasn't a great look, but it's doubtful looking at the pattern of his full weekend that Russell - as reliable as ever through practice and qualifying - could be blamed for that.
Verdict: Did as well as could be expected in tricky circumstances.
Started: 11th Finished: 7th
Didn't start the weekend all that well relative to Aston Martin team-mate Lance Stroll, but come qualifying Alonso showed up - matching Leclerc to the thousandth in Q1 and coming less than a tenth away from knocking Antonelli's Mercedes out of the top 10.
Given the Aston Martin has been a Q3 regular since its Imola upgrade, plus the fact Pierre Gasly, Gabriel Bortoleto and Lawson all made the top 10, there was possibly an opportunity missed there for Alonso.
But what really impressed was his harassing of Lawson in the race - Alonso being the only other driver to make the one-stop strategy work. And the way he masterfully manipulated DRS to keep Bortoleto's faster Sauber behind at the end before the McLarens broke up their fight.
Verdict: As crafty and relentless as ever.
Started: 4th Finished: 4th
There are a couple of major 'what-ifs' relating to Hamilton's weekend. He says Ferrari found an unspecified "problem on my last qualifying lap which cost me a tenth", without which he would have squeaked ahead of Leclerc onto the front row of the grid.
Provided he stayed ahead at the start, would Hamilton have been able to finish on the podium with strategic priority, or would a lack of race pace have inevitably led to yet more awkward Ferrari radio communication and 'race management'?
He also appeared to push to convert to a one-stop strategy that Ferrari refused, but it's conceivable Hamilton could have done what Lawson and Alonso managed on the hard tyre. Would that have been enough to beat Leclerc to the podium?
But anyway, Hamilton admits he was struggling with the brakes from the early laps and also hasn't yet worked out how Leclerc manipulates Ferrari's "massively understeery car" in the races, "somehow [he] slides the rears but doesn't have degradation. When I slide the rears, I get massive degradation".
So although this was a relatively decent Hamilton weekend, Leclerc remains a step ahead of him for now.
Verdict: A decent weekend but still shaded by his team-mate.
Started: 8th Finished: 8th
This was a very impressive weekend from Bortoleto, who said it's the first time he's clicked with the car and the track from the very first laps of FP1. Lapping only 0.01s slower than Verstappen in Q2 was the performance highlight.
But after that point there are a couple of question marks:
1. The fact he went three tenths slower in Q3 than he did in Q2 suggests there was time left on the table and it was possible to beat Lawson to sixth on the grid.
2. There was nothing he could do about Gasly and Alex Albon moving ahead on lap one of the race, thanks to the Antonelli/Verstappen collision forcing him wide at Turn 3, but Bortoleto got soundly beaten on tyre management by the one-stopping Lawson and Alonso, finished less than six seconds clear of Sauber team-mate Nico Hulkenberg (who started last), and was also schooled a bit in battle during that late fight with Alonso.
So, as impressive as this weekend was, it still feels like there was perhaps a bit more than an eighth place there for the taking.
Verdict: Impressive pace, but perhaps not the optimum result.
Started: 20th Finished: 9th
Hulkenberg's race was probably among the top five or six in terms of execution - especially when you consider he was still running last of the 17 cars in the grand prix at the end of lap one.
Of the four drivers to start the race on soft tyres (the others being Gasly, Ollie Bearman and Franco Colapinto), Hulkenberg's race was easily the best of them. OK, he also took the benefit of two sets of new mediums, so didn't need to run the hard like they did, but so did Red Bull's Yuki Tsunoda and his race was awfulβ¦
Considering how far back he started, for Hulkenberg to finish within six seconds of the other Sauber has to go down as an excellent performance.
Only the Q1 error at Turn 4 (which meant he went from being a tenth up on Bortoleto to 0.4s down) costs him a higher place in this ranking, because as well as he drove this wasn't the maximum result possible.
Verdict: Very impressive race, but let down by qualifying.
Started: 12th Finished: DNF
Now we're into a subset of five drivers who all had imperfect weekends for different reasons.
Albon gets the nod over the rest of them because of how well he drove in qualifying despite his Williams being compromised by floor damage - plus the fact he'd moved himself past Gasly to be the leading midfield runner in the race when the car appeared to suffer a repeat of the cooling problems that ruined Albon's Canadian GP.
Without that, and considering the Hulkenberg-like tyre allocation at his disposal, it's reasonable to think Albon was in contention to race with, and possibly beat, Lawson and Alonso before the car let him down.
Verdict: Did everything he could on a difficult weekend for Williams.
Started: 17th Finished: 10th
Quite a similar performance to Hulkenberg's, in that Esteban Ocon's strong race - particularly an impressive middle stint on the hard tyre - salvaged his weekend after an underwhelming qualifying performance.
The main difference being Ocon's race was not quite as impressive as Hulkenberg's, in the same way his qualifying wasn't quite as underwhelming!
Didn't make Q2 in a car that Bearman showed was capable of doing so, but finishing 10th was anyway probably about the best result on offer.
But was it? Considering Ocon finished only 2.2s behind the second Sauber, was Hulkenberg actually beatable considering Ocon started ahead?
Haas team boss Ayao Komatsu reckoned Ocon's tyre management was good enough that a one-stop was possible, so perhaps there was a missed opportunity there.
Verdict: Underwhelming qualifying but very strong race.
Started: 10th Finished: 13th
Everyone else in this group, including Gasly, has either an underwhelming qualifying or an underwhelming race - or both! The reason Gasly gets the nod over the rest is that absolutely stunning lap to make Q3, which matched Bortoleto's Sauber to the thousandth.
Gasly banks a large amount of credit for that impressive peak, despite then spinning away his only Q3 lap and enduring a pretty awful race, in which he became increasingly furious at his Alpine's lack of grip and inability to look after its tyres.
He seemed convinced the car was broken, the team didn't really back that claim up, so it remains an open question as to how far Gasly played a role in his race unravelling and how much that was simply a regression of the car to the mean after a massive qualifying overperformance.
What is clear is that Gasly didn't remain calm in the face of that adversity.
Verdict: Awful race, but outstanding Q2 lap rescues his ranking.
Started: 7th Finished: DNF
Not much to say for Verstappen's race, except the fact he quickly dealt with Lawson's Racing Bulls at the start and was harassing Russell and Hamilton on the run to Turn 3 before getting wiped out by Antonelli. Without that it's reasonable to assume he'd have been battling for at least fourth.
What lets Verstappen down is that underwhelming Q3 banker lap, which was almost a tenth slower than he went in Q2 and meant he ended up being outqualified by a Racing Bulls once Gasly's Alpine had brought out the yellow flags that Red Bull felt cost Verstappen a realistic shot at the front row.
Even amid the tyre temperature problems and disconnected balance that hampered Verstappen throughout qualifying, that Q2 to Q3 discrepancy suggests a slight underperformance.
Obviously it then all depends how much you credit Verstappen for pulling off miracles in a car that otherwise disappeared after Q1 in the hands of his team-mate! But in terms of what we've come to expect from the world champion, and Red Bull, this was at the very least not the usual Saturday heroics.
Verdict: Weak Q3 banker lap hurts his ranking.
Started: 15th Finished: 11th
Would be much closer to the top 10 in this ranking had he translated a strong qualifying performance into a points finish. But having got himself into position just behind Alonso in a decent and combative opening stint, Bearman's race fell away thereafter.
For reasons unclear he wasnβt able to make the hard Pirelli tyre work nearly as well as Ocon managed through the crucial middle stint, meaning an earlier than ideal final stop and slightly extended stint on mediums to the end.
Finishing nearly 15s behind his team-mate, after starting ahead, suggests he was comprehensively outraced.
Verdict: Impressive Q1, but poor middle race stint lets him down.
Started: 13th Finished: 12th
Now we're into a second subset of drivers I would class as having generally underwhelming weekends - certainly towards the business end of qualifying and the race. Obviously it hurts Hadjar that the other Racing Bulls was the one absolutely maximising results on both Saturday and Sunday.
It seems like in Q2 Hadjar's front tyres weren't up to temperature and he just had "tons of understeer". The 0.185s gap to Lawson was at least in the top four in terms of 'gaps to team-mate who beat me' (behind only Hamilton, Stroll and Ocon).
Hadjar's race ran to a slightly weird trajectory, in that he was one of the worst affected by running wide to avoid the Antonelli/Verstappen collision, finished lap one ahead of only Hulkenberg's Sauber, then made a pitstop under the safety car to get off the soft tyres.
That ludicrously early pitstop means it's not really possible to directly compare him strategically to anyone else. What we can say is that for the second part of his race he shakes out at around three seconds behind Alonso on five-lap older tyres, and in those remaining 35 laps gradually loses touch, gets caught by the Saubers, then dumped out of the points after picking up floor damage at Turn 1.
Looking at the race plots, he probably finishes 11th at best without that damage.
Verdict: Massively overshadowed by Lawson's star turn.
Started: 16th Finished: 14th
Stroll avoids a lower ranking on the basis his practice pace was genuinely impressive, his Q1 deficit to Alonso (0.132s) was the smallest team-mate deficit outside of anyone but the Ferrari drivers, and he didn't make any egregious errors.
But it was still a deeply underwhelming performance on a track Stroll usually goes well at. He seemed to get caught out by the rising temperatures and couldn't manage the tyres properly.
Considering he spent the first 11 laps running ahead of Ocon, to finish nearly 25s behind the Haas and outside the points suggests something went badly wrong.
Verdict: Couldn't convert strong practice form when it counted.
Started: DNS Finished: DNS
An argument could be made to discount Carlos Sainz from the rankings entirely, given his Williams got stuck on the grid and then set fire to itself rather than take a pitlane start. But we've ranked Verstappen and Albon, so we can probably stretch it to Sainz too.
And he sits some way below those two basically on account of Q1, during which Albon appeared to do a better job of mitigating the floor damage that afflicted both Williams cars.
Sainz complained of a brake issue too, and certainly he appeared to lack Albon's confidence through Turn 3 and the medium-speed Turns 6 and 7.
Williams didn't change Sainz's brakes before the race, but it did fit a new vane to the left-front brake duct, so perhaps Sainz was simply battling a slightly worse aero balance than Albon was.
What we can't know is whether he could/should have made a slightly better fist of that battle.
Verdict: Another weekend to forget with too many problems.
Started: 9th Finished: DNF
You could make a case for Antonelli being bottom of this list, just on the basis of the big braking misjudgement that took him and Verstappen out of the race on the first lap. Without that mistake, a top-seven result was surely on the cards.
What rescues Antonelli from the wooden spoon is a level of underlying performance that was more respectable relative to his own team-mate than either of the drivers ranked below him managed.
In Q1 Antonelli was the quicker Mercedes driver, and unlike Tsunoda he actually made it through Q1 and Q2 in a car that should always be qualifying inside the top 10 by rights.
But 0.432s was still too big a gap to Russell on their respective Q3 banker laps, so it would seem Antonelli still hasn't yet found quite the right balance between being too attacking and too conservative as he works through the sessions.
Verdict: Big error at Turn 3 on lap one tanks his ranking.
Started: 14th Finished: 15th
As the races tick by, Colapinto's lack of performance is making Flavio Briatore's decision to swap out Jack Doohan look somewhat misguided (South American sponsorship money notwithstanding).
The driver that impressed the paddock with star turns for Williams in the second half of last season just isn't showing up right now, constrained by a lack of confidence in what no doubt is a tricky Alpine car.
The trouble is, when your team-mate is sticking that same car into Q3 it becomes more difficult to justify your underperformance - and the fact Briatore is now turning the screw (and speaking to Valtteri Bottas) suggests patience is wearing thin.
Colapinto arguably did a slightly better job than Gasly managing the tyres in the race, but even that is overshadowed by a needless penalty for forcing Piastri off the track while being lapped.
Verdict: Needs a strong weekend and fast.
Started: 18th Finished: 16th
A fourth consecutive race with no points scored by Tsunoda, and he just sounds increasingly baffled as to why he can't perform in a car that should easily be finishing at least sixth in this race given the way it played out.
He knows the gap between where he is and where should be is "massive" but cannot seem to find an obvious reason why, even through detailed analysis with his engineers.
Clattered into Colapinto's Alpine at Turn 4, copped a 10s penalty for it, and chewed through the tyres so badly he was the only driver who needed to make three pitstops.
But even with a completely clean race and better tyre management it's difficult to see how Tsunoda does any better than 14th - which is nowhere near good enough in a Red Bull.
Verdict: Mistakes, no pace and no tyre management. Just bafflingly terrible.
Comments
Dave Smith
From memory Stroll has been the quicker Aston driver in practice quite often this season. Perhaps Fernando uses the practice time to more methodically perfect the balance rather than chase lap time. He always has the pace where it counts!
Michael Holden
How much did you factor Nico's very poor Q1 run into his overall ranking? After all, it was only that error that allowed him to shine on Sunday. I wonder if he qualified 10th and finished, say 6th, what you would've ranked him? (Not that I disagree, I just like to speculate π)
