POWER RANKINGS: Who took top spot after a tough race in Monaco?

The wet-dry 2022 Monaco Grand Prix saw Charles Leclerc lose out to his team mate, plus both Red Bulls, as Sergio Perez took his first victory of the season. But who impressed the judges – and who's top of the leaderboard now? Scroll down to see.

How it works

Our five-judge panel assess each driver after every Grand Prix and score them out of 10 according to their performance across the weekend – taking machinery out of the equation
Our experts’ scores are then averaged out to produce a race score – with those scores then tallied up across the season on our overall Power Rankings Leaderboard (at the bottom of the page)

An almost flawless Perez took the highest score this weekend having jumped the Ferraris and kept Sainz, plus Red Bull team mate Verstappen, behind on a challenging final stint on graining medium tyres. There were some close calls, the Mexican almost being passed – or collected – through the hairpin, but he kept his cool in one of the hardest settings.

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Leclerc's sensational pole position set him up for what seemed to be a likely first victory at home. But rain meant the Monegasque driver would face a tough task in keeping his lead – and so it proved, Ferrari's strategy unravelling and Red Bull jumping ahead while Leclerc fell to fourth. The judges gave him a high score and there's no doubt that Leclerc has been unfortunate not to win both this and the preceding Spanish GP.

Tonsillitis did little to deter Norris from a strong finish in Monaco. Qualifying a brilliant fifth, the McLaren driver managed to finish sixth on the road and take the bonus point for fastest lap while team mate Ricciardo could only manage 13th. Moreover, Norris finished more than 30 seconds ahead of Alpine's Alonso.

Sainz was outqualified by Leclerc on Saturday having crashed into the stricken Red Bull of eventual winner Perez. From second on the grid, it seemed the Spaniard had a shot at winning the race had he not been compromised behind a backmarker during an out-lap from the pits. His face said it all, really. But he got a pretty solid score from the judges, and finished ahead of team mate Leclerc.

Another top-five finish for Russell, who really couldn't have finished any higher with the front-runners making it to the very end. The Mercedes driver's pace put him well in front of the midfielders – 12s ahead of sixth-place Norris – and nearly 40 seconds ahead of team mate Hamilton.

Verstappen was off the pace of team mate Perez throughout the weekend, and that finally culminated in the Red Bull driver finishing third behind his Red Bull counterpart and Ferrari's Sainz. The Dutchman still managed to take the final podium place having jumped pole-sitter Leclerc and, most importantly, has the championship lead going into Azerbaijan.

He couldn't keep up with Norris but Alonso had a solid weekend nonetheless, qualifying seventh and finishing there – holding up a train of cars including Hamilton. It was a calculated show of driving, if a slightly infuriating one for those following him, that secured useful points for Alpine.

Vettel nailed qualifying to make it into Q3 and secure ninth on the grid, the Aston Martin driver making an early mistake to lose a place to Ocon. His pace in the race was decent, though the four-time champion lost out to Bottas and Ocon later on. He was promoted into the points when the Alpine driver copped a five-second penalty.

Possibly unfortunate to qualify 17th given traffic at the end of Q1, Gasly put on the moves after an early stop for intermediate tyres. A confident show of pace around Monaco, with some brilliant passes, saw him rise to 12th, but he was stopped in his tracks when the red flags flew. The Frenchman was promoted to P11 when compatriot Ocon took his penalty.

Bottas couldn't string it together in qualifying – perhaps no surprise given he was hampered once again by reliability issues in Friday practice – but the Alfa Romeo driver was one of a few to capitalise when switching from wets to slicks, and finished 10th. P9 was his reward when that five-second penalty hit Ocon.

Missing out

Magnussen missed out on the top 10 this week. The Haas driver retired with a power unit issue but, qualifying 13th, he was ahead of team mate Schumacher and was running 11th before reliability troubles hit.

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POWER RANKINGS: Who took top spot after a tough race in Monaco?

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Missing out

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