POWER RANKINGS: Who shone under the lights during a stunning Las Vegas weekend?

George Russell secured an expert victory around the streets of Las Vegas as Mercedes took a spectacular 1-2, but it was also a glorious weekend for a certain Max Verstappen who was crowned champion for a fourth time. But who else impressed our judges under the neon lights? Scroll down to check out the latest Power Rankings leaderboard.

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)

George Russell started the Las Vegas weekend in the shadow of Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton, but he turned up the heat when it mattered, posting two superb Q3 laps to secure pole position and then converting it masterfully on race day. In team boss Toto Wolff’s words, his driving was from “another planet”.

After a tough weekend in Brazil, topping FP1 and FP2 at the Las Vegas Strip Circuit was the perfect way for Hamilton to bounce back. Mistakes in the pole shootout proved costly, before a charge through the field from 10th on the grid served as another reminder of what the seven-time world champion can do.

Max Verstappen entered the night-time event knowing he would clinch a fourth world title by simply finishing ahead of rival Lando Norris. In a cool, calm and composed performance from the Red Bull driver, that’s exactly what he achieved – following the faster Mercedes and Ferrari cars home and getting the job done.

Several drivers have been placed alongside Yuki Tsunoda at RB in order to gauge their competitiveness in recent times and, over the course of the weekend in Vegas, the Japanese racer seemed more determined than ever to prove a point to Red Bull. Comfortably quicker than team mate Liam Lawson, he made it to Q3 before scoring some valuable points.

Tsunoda spent the closing stages of the race squabbling with Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg over eighth position. It was the German who ultimately crossed the finish line ahead, giving his team another couple of points that could be decisive in their quest to beat both RB and Alpine to sixth position in the constructors’ standings.

Carlos Sainz emerged as Russell’s nearest rival in both qualifying and the race on Sin City’s streets, pulling his own special lap out at the end of Q3 and playing the long game across the 50-lap encounter – regaining P2 after team mate Charles Leclerc shot ahead at the start but then ruined his first set of tyres.

Pierre Gasly was another star of qualifying with a sensational drive to third on the grid, raising eyebrows as he got the better of Leclerc and title contenders Verstappen and Norris. But what could have been another stellar race result following Alpine’s shock double podium at Interlagos was dashed by terminal engine woes early on.

A couple of weeks on from finding out that he will no longer be racing for Kick Sauber in 2025, Zhou Guanyu strung together one of the strongest weekends of his season. Faster than Valtteri Bottas in the crunch sessions, the Chinese driver ended a run of Q1 exits stretching back to Hungary and was not a world away from the points on race day.

As touched on above, Leclerc’s race promised so much when he jumped from fourth to second at the first corner, only to put his tyres under too much strain and be forced into an early stop. He emerged from his second pit lane visit ahead of Sainz, after the latter’s unusual entry incident, but was swiftly overtaken and had to settle for P3.

Norris admitted that he spent the days after Brazil struggling to sleep, with his chances of overhauling Verstappen for the title dealt a massive blow. As McLaren experienced an off weekend in the cool, slippery Vegas conditions, the Briton never looked at one with the car and, in a quiet race, could not do enough to stay in the fight.

Missing out

Alex Albon is the man to just miss out on the top 10, with the Williams driver's recent run of bad luck continuing. The race had started in promising style for Albon as he made gains from his P17 grid slot, putting him in the battle for points following the first round of pit stops. But that all came to an abrupt end as he was forced to retire on Lap 25 owing to a suspected power unit issue.

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POWER RANKINGS: Who shone under the lights during a stunning Las Vegas weekend?

How it works

Missing out

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