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POWER RANKINGS: Who made the biggest impression on our judges in a tense Budapest encounter?
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Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris were in a league of their own as McLaren managed some intra-team drama to record a dominant one-two finish in the Hungarian Grand Prix. But which other drivers impressed during the Budapest weekend? Scroll down to check out the latest Power Rankings leaderboard.
How it works
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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
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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)
Oscar Piastri made the perfect getaway at the Hungaroring to seize the initiative and control the opening half of proceedings ahead of team mate Lando Norris. While they swapped places at the second round of pit stops and a dramatic team orders debate ensued, Norris ultimately returned the position to Piastri and the Australian recorded a well-deserved maiden victory, while also becoming the seventh different winner in 13 races so far this season. Our judges were suitably impressed.
Norris displayed plenty of underlying pace after passing Piastri in the pit lane and moving into clean air, with the Briton – who had started on pole position – keen to show he had what it took to claim victory. After some back-and-forth between himself and the McLaren pit wall, Norris did what the team asked him and returned P1 to his team mate, but a statement was still made in his quest to challenge Red Bull rival Max Verstappen for the 2024 drivers’ title.
Fresh from a morale-boosting victory at Silverstone, Lewis Hamilton emerged as the ‘best of the rest’ around the tight, twisty Hungaroring venue, impressively beating both Ferraris and the Red Bull of Verstappen to the final podium spot. The seven-time world champion’s performance included some creative defending against his 2021 title rival, whose efforts to grab P3 in the closing laps were ended by an ambitious lunge at Turn 1. It was a gutsy drive and one that also earned a top-three spot in our judges’ rankings.
While Ferrari could not quite contend for a podium finish, their performance across the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend at least marked a step up from recent events. With Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz continuing to learn more about the team’s recent updates, it was the Monegasque who had the edge on race day, coming home fourth as he made the most of Verstappen’s airborne incident with Hamilton.
READ MORE: Ferrari performance ‘not where we want it to be’ says Leclerc after P4 in Hungary
Yuki Tsunoda’s weekend took a dramatic turn for the worse when he crashed out of Q3, bringing a halt to what had been an impressive qualifying display up to that point. But he more than made up for it on race day, delivering an assured run to P9 to make it back-to-back points finishes and seven for the campaign – topping up RB’s tally in a tight midfield battle.
FACTS AND STATS: Hamilton hits 200 podiums as Piastri becomes first winner born this century
Sainz led team mate Leclerc in qualifying but the tables were turned in the race, with the Spaniard’s poor start dropping him from fourth to sixth and setting the scene for the rest of the afternoon. Given the challenge of overtaking at a track often described as Monaco without walls, P6 proved to be the limit for Sainz as he narrowly missed out on clearing Verstappen in the final laps to the chequered flag.
MONDAY MORNING DEBRIEF: Why did McLaren pit Norris before Piastri – and did they really need to?
A strong start to Sunday’s race initially put Alex Albon in the mix for points, with the Thai-British driver and Williams punching above their weight. But his charge was undone by strategy, first when he got stuck behind Fernando Alonso after a failed undercut attempt and then when his two-stop approach became a three-stop before being reverted to a two-stop, leaving him with heavily worn tyres. With all of that in mind, the judges took note of Albon’s efforts and his potential to bag points.
HIGHLIGHTS: Enjoy the action from a controversial Hungarian GP as Piastri claims maiden F1 victory
George Russell found himself on the back foot after a shock Q1 exit in mixed conditions that Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff described as “a total underperformance from everybody”. Given those aforementioned overtaking difficulties, the Briton did well to rise from 17th on the grid to eighth via an off-set strategy, scoring some extra points alongside team mate Hamilton’s podium finish.
There were no more points for Nico Hulkenberg in Hungary after successive P6 results in Austria and Britain, but the Haas driver still earned praise for his weekend-long performance. Once again knocking on the door of a Q3 result and a top-10 finish, and leading the team’s charge over Kevin Magnussen, the German squeezes into the top half of our latest Power Rankings list.
Daniel Ricciardo joined team mate Tsunoda in Q3 as his largely positive trend continued at the Hungaroring. However, his hopes of joining the Japanese racer in the points were derailed when the two drivers went separate ways in terms of strategy: Ricciardo two-stopping into traffic and Tsunoda going for a more effective one-stop. Given that crucial difference, which dropped him out of the running for a reward, and given the pace he had shown up to that point, the Australian earned some solid scores from the judges.
TREMAYNE: ‘A big weight off my shoulders’ – Button’s brilliant Budapest breakthrough in 2006
Lance Stroll is the final driver to make the Power Rankings cut, having secured a spot in Q3 – qualifying just behind two-time world champion team mate Fernando Alonso – and then been the only Aston Martin man to score on Sunday. It added to his P7 finish in Britain and keeps up the momentum that has been building since the Canadian penned a new deal to stay in green in 2025 and beyond.
Missing out
Valtteri Bottas was next up after trying but failing to give Kick Sauber their first points finish of the season, followed by Verstappen after his incident-filled race and the two Alpines of Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon.
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