POWER RANKINGS: Which drivers impressed our judges at the Miami Grand Prix?

Our judges have delivered their verdict after Max Verstappen fought his way up from ninth on the grid to win the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday. The Dutch driver has a place in the top-10, but who else impressed? Here are the scores from Florida…

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)

In possibly his quietest weekend of the season, Alonso continued to do what he has done all season: putting the AMR23 on the podium. A strong qualifying saw him start second, before he lost the position to the much faster Max Verstappen in the race.

He dropped down to fourth when it looked like Carlos Sainz had undercut him in the pits, but quickly re-overtook his compatriot to then drive what he called a lonely race to third. It’s been a phenomenal start to the season for Alonso, who has already set his eyes on finishing higher on the podium.

The only black mark against Verstappen this weekend was his inability to set a lap in Q3 in qualifying. Other than that, he was in a league of his own in Miami. The reigning champ was in irresistible form on race day, as he took the RB19 from ninth on the grid to the top step of the podium with apparent ease.

Alonso had predicted that the Red Bull driver would overtake him by Lap 25, but such was the Verstappen’s pace that he was making the move down the inside of the Spaniard at Turn 11 for P2 on Lap 15. A dominant win.

At one stage it looked like Russell and his Mercedes team were in for a difficult weekend, but somehow, they managed to make the best of a tough situation, benefitting from the red flag in qualifying that saw him start the race in sixth.

Russell used that starting position to his advantage, putting in a good day’s work in the Grand Prix which saw him pull off some impressive overtakes on Pierre Gasly and later on Sainz to finish fourth, believing that was the best he and Mercedes could have done this weekend.

A second 10th place finish of the season for Magnussen, although after qualifying in a season's best P4, the Dane admitted that he been dreaming of achieving a little bit more than a point in Sunday’s Miami GP.

However, a bad start cost him a couple of places, but he quickly found his rhythm, becoming embroiled in an entertaining multi-lap battle with the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc. He was running in eighth – before Lewis Hamilton and Esteban Ocon came past, leaving him 10th – in what was still a welcome point for Magnussen and Haas.

After qualifying on pole, Perez admitted that up until that point it had been his worst weekend in F1, with the Mexican just struggling to match the pace of his team mate Verstappen in practice.

He would have hoped that starting from P1 would have given him an edge on Sunday, but he struggled with his medium tyres on the first stint, while his team mate was flying on the hards. In the end, he just did not have enough to stand on the top step, coming home second to help Red Bull seal yet another 1-2 finish.

There might not have been a more relieved driver at the chequered flag in Miami than Gasly, following two incident-filled and point-less outings in Melbourne and Baku. After qualifying fifth, he made a fast start that saw him get up to fourth, and was at his consistent best all afternoon.

Unfortunately for him, he just couldn't hold off Leclerc and Hamilton in the closing stages of the race, dropping him down from sixth to eighth, but after two tough outings, he and Alpine would surely have taken this result before the start of the weekend.

It was another Sunday of Hamilton displaying his epic race craft after a poor qualifying on Saturday saw him start the Miami GP down in 13th. He was stuck in a DRS train to begin proceedings, but once he cleared the traffic, he showcased his pace.

After making the hard tyre last long on his first stint, he switched to the mediums for the remainder of the race and pulled off some impressive overtakes on the likes of Valtteri Bottas, Gasly, and Leclerc to finish in a respectable sixth place.

If ever you needed a reminder about Tsunoda’s ability behind the wheel you should ride onboard with him for his opening lap of the Grand Prix, as he made his way through the field from 17th.

After being knocked out in Q1, finishing 11th might sound great, but Tsunoda was only about a second-and-a-half away from taking 10th place and a point. Still, it was an impressive recovery drive for the Japanese racer in what is turning out to be a tough season for AlphaTauri fso far.

Sainz qualified in the top three for the first time this season, and actually drove a very solid race for Ferrari on Sunday – and even looked on course to finish on the podium for the first time this year once he undercut Alonso.

However, he struggled on his tyres in the final stint, as he lost a place to his compatriot Alonso, and the Mercedes of Russell, dropping him down to fifth. However, the Spaniard was pleased to have been more on the pace than his tricky weekend last time out in Baku.

On the face of it, qualifying in 12th and finishing in 15th might not sound like the most impressive of weekends for the German, but luck was just never on Hulkenberg's side, starting with him encountering traffic on his final out lap in qualifying.

He was performing well in the race as he made it as high as seventh, after starting on the hard tyre, but once he switched to the mediums, he got stuck in a DRS train, and was unable to make any impression on the cars ahead. Not the result he would have wanted, but still a noteworthy drive from Hulkenberg.

Missing Out

Narrowly missing out on a place in the top-10 this week are Esteban Ocon and Alex Albon. Ocon finished ninth for Alpine in Miami, and impressed with his race craft, including overtaking Sainz on older hard tyres.

Albon, on the other hand, finished down in 14th, but impressed especially on Saturday, as he qualified in 11th, just missing out on a place in Q3.

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POWER RANKINGS: Which drivers impressed our judges at the Miami Grand Prix?

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