Is a first-time grand prix victory enough for Kimi Antonelli to top Edd Straw's Formula 1 driver rankings from the Chinese Grand Prix?

Below you'll find Edd's verdict on all 22 drivers from best to worst.

How do the rankings work? The 22 drivers will be ranked in order of performance from best to worst on each grand prix weekend. This will be based on the full range of criteria, ranging from pace and racecraft to consistency and whether they made key mistakes. How close each driver got to delivering on the maximum performance potential of the car will be an essential consideration.

It’s important to note both that this reflects performance across the entire weekend, cognisant of the fact that qualifying is effectively ‘lap 0’ of the race and key to laying the foundations to the race, and that it is not a ranking of the all-round qualities of each driver. It’s simply about how they performed on a given weekend. Therefore, the ranking will fluctuate significantly from weekend to weekend.

And with each of the 11 cars fundamentally having different performance potential and ‘luck’ (ie factors outside of a driver’s control) contributing to the way the weekend plays out, this ranking will also differ significantly from the overall results.

Sprint: 12th Started: 17th Finished: 9th

It’s symptomatic of the limitations of the Williams that Carlos Sainz’s strong weekend driving-wise yielded nothing more than ninth place.

Sainz consistently put the car at the ceiling of its potential in qualifying, at the top of the elimination zone in the first segment on both Friday and Saturday, but never close enough to 16th to have had a realistic chance of advancing.

Want to quiz Edd on his Chinese GP driver rankings? Make sure you're signed up to The Race Members' Club to exactly that. Right now, you can get 90% off your first month. Just head to this post to ask Edd your rankings question.

And NEW if you sign up to the Champions tier, YOU can rank the F1 drivers with us? Make your choices here.

Race-wise, his drive to 12th in the sprint after starting on hards was a strong one, while in the grand prix, he seized the opportunity presented by retirements and incidents to hold off Colapinto for a couple of points. There was nothing to suggest he left anything on the table.

Verdict: Effectively a winning weekend given it’s the third-worst car.

Sprint: 3rd Started: 3rd Finished: 3rd

Lewis Hamilton continues to be more in tune with these cars than he was with those of the previous generation and led the way for Ferrari in both qualifying sessions and, on his way to a first podium for the team, in the grand prix.

It was only in the sprint race that Charles Leclerc got the upper hand in battle. Between them, he and Leclerc produced the most dramatic wheel-to-wheel action of the weekend.

He also made the most of the strength of the Ferrari off the line to jump into the lead of both races, causing headaches for Russell and showing that his racecraft is still as sharp as ever by asserting himself in the intra-Ferrari battle well before the end of the race. 

Verdict: The stronger Ferrari driver overall.

Sprint: 8th Started: 10th Finished: 5th

Unlike in Melbourne, he appeared to have a decisive edge on Esteban Ocon in terms of pace throughout.

That translated into Q3 appearances on both Friday and Saturday, then an outstanding fifth place at the head of the midfield pack in the grand prix.

His race drive was particularly impressive given he had to take evasive action and go off track to avoid Isack Hadjar, and he kept Max Verstappen well covered before the Red Bull vanished. The sprint race result is disappointing on paper, but he held sixth place ahead of Kimi Antonelli before staying out under the safety car, which inevitably meant he slipped back after the restart. 

Verdict: On top of the demands of the Haas.

Sprint: 1st Started: 2nd Finished: 2nd

George Russell did exactly what you would expect him to do up until Q3 on Saturday, winning the sprint from pole position even though it took him five laps to assert himself over the fast-starting Hamilton.

Grinding to a halt on his Q3 outlap, then crawling back to the pits knocked him off course, restricting him to a single qualifying lap with the tyre temperatures and battery level not in the right place by way of “damage limitation”.

Falling behind midfielders Colapinto and Ocon when he stopped under the safety car was a hindrance, as was the fact Mercedes struggled to fire the hard rubber, but he didn’t make the best of the restart and ended up behind both Ferraris. By the time he’d cleared them, he was 7.7s behind Antonelli and never looked like closing to within attacking range.

Verdict: Restart losses are a minor blemish on his weekend. 

Sprint: 5th Started: 1st Finished: 1st

Kimi Antonelli has a frustrating tendency to perform well throughout a weekend, but throw in one error that compromises his ranking, which is what drops him out of the top group of four drivers and to the top of the second tier.

Make no mistake, the drive to his first grand prix victory was outstanding, not because he wasn’t in the best car but because the 19-year-old knew that eventually Russell would get to a point where there was clear air between them.

He built the lead when he had the opportunity and, hairpin lock-up aside, made no mistakes. Although Russell likely, but by no means certainly, would have beaten him to pole with a normal Q3, Antonelli did the job there too.

Sadly, his fifth place in the sprint after clattering Hadjar on the first lap having made a slow start after losing boost pressure, along with a restart error that cost him a chance to move forward late on, bumps him into the top of the next group of drivers in the ranking. 

Verdict: Sprint blunder hurts his ranking.

Sprint: 2nd Started: 4th Finished: 4th

It’s clear that Leclerc hasn’t got on top of some of the quirks of these cars quite as well as Hamilton, particularly in qualifying where his on-the-edge style has proved counter-productive at times.

Despite that, he was by no means slow and was close to Hamilton’s level, even though he was marginally the weaker Ferrari driver.

The sprint race was the exception to that trend, prevailing in a dramatic battle with his team-mate. 

Verdict: Second-best Ferrari driver.

Sprint: DNF Started: 11th Finished: 11th

Nico Hulkenberg put the Audi roughly where it should be in both qualifying sessions, although if you’re being hyper-critical, there’s no question he could have found the two-thousandths he missed out on Q3 by.

Both races were undermined by poor starts, which appear to be more an occupational hazard of driving an Audi than driver error, given that in the sprint the initial launch was good, but he lost out when there was no deployment.

In the main event, the combination of a slow start to run 15th despite two cars ahead being absent, the safety car compromising his hard-start strategy and a wheelgun problem that cost him 14 seconds in the pitstop, meant he didn’t score points. 

Verdict: Nothing significantly wrong with his weekend.

Sprint: 11th Started: 7th Finished: 6th

Far happier with the car from the start of the weekend, thanks to a combination of Shanghai not exposing the Alpine’s high-speed understeer problem and the step in understanding since Melbourne.

Pierre Gasly put the Alpine at the head of the midfield in both qualifying sessions, although the sprint got away from him and he was shuffled back thanks to tyre struggles and gambling on staying out under the safety car.

He held fifth early on in the grand prix, but a moment exiting the last corner at the restart appeared to contribute to a delay in maximum deployment and allowed Bearman to jump ahead.

This also meant Gasly ended up locked in battle with Verstappen, with the Red Bull driver securing sixth before retiring and handing Gasly back sixth.

Verdict: Race imperfections cost him slightly.

Sprint: 7th Started: 14th Finished: 7th

While qualifying could perhaps have been a little better, with the caveat that his final Q2 lap was ruined by Gabriel Bortoleto’s off triggering yellow flags, Liam Lawson raced well to bag seventh place in both the sprint and the grand prix.

That did seem to reflect the fact the Racing Bulls was probably a better race car than qualifying car, but even so, for Lawson to beat Bearman in the sprint to lead the midfield group was equivalent to a victory.

Overall, this was a good weekend from Lawson who made no significant errors and came away with race results that were both at, or very near to, the maximum for the car.

Verdict: Particularly strong in race conditions. 

Sprint: 9th Started: 8th Finished: DNF

This marks the start of the third group of drivers in the ranking, those who overall performed well but with question marks hanging over them or limitations that made it harder for them to excel.

Verstappen was never happy with a car he described as having no grip, suffering variously from understeer and oversteer, so found himself battling in the midfield throughout.

While the primary problem was the car, Verstappen wasn’t driving at his absolute best, as proved by the trip through the gravel in SQ2.

However, despite bad starts both in the sprint and the grand prix he recovered ground, albeit only to ninth on Saturday.

On Sunday, starting on softs made life difficult but he climbed to sixth place in the laps after the restart, where he looked destined to finish, before an ERS cooling problem forced him to retire. However, he had the edge over Hadjar on pace. 

Verdict: Limited by the car, but with untidy moments. 

Sprint: 17th Started: 18th Finished: DNF

Fernando Alonso did what he could with the Aston Martin, which meant little more than trying to stay ahead of the Cadillacs and tolerating the vibration through the steering wheel that eventually forced his retirement from the grand prix.

Just as in Australia, he caught the eye in the limited moments there was the opportunity to and there’s little doubt his improvisational style allows him to extract far more from a car that is not easy to drive than his team-mate, although there was a limit to how much he could make an impression.

However, there was at least greater chance than there had been in Melbourne and he again briefly elevated the car into the points at the start. 

Verdict: Opportunity limited by the car. 

Sprint: DNF Started: 19th Finished: 13th

Valtteri Bottas had the cleaner run of the Cadillac drivers in China in terms of the car, although even he had difficulties as a deployment problem outside of his control ruined his chances of challenging the Aston Martins in sprint qualifying.

However, there were no such problems on Saturday, so he picked off Stroll, and might even have been able to threaten Alonso with perfect execution.

The grand prix went smoothly after surviving the clash with Sergio Perez on lap one. In a more competitive car, this level of performance would have been more eye-catching. 

Verdict: Got the most out of the Cadillac. 

Sprint: 4th Started: 6th Finished: DNS

The two McLaren drivers were evenly matched during the weekend, separated by hundredths in the two qualifying sessions despite both struggling with deployment inconsistencies.

Lando Norris marginally had the better of the sprint component of the weekend, finishing fourth, but in main qualifying was fractionally behind Piastri, with their battle swung against him by carrying slightly less speed through the final corner.

That’s all there is to go on when it comes to ranking Norris, given neither McLaren started the race, but as the McLaren was the third-best car, he was generally making the most of it. Failing to start the race through no fault of their own reduced the opportunity to grasp a higher ranking.

Verdict: Sprint performance means he shades Piastri. 

Sprint: 6th Started: 5th Finished: DNS

While there was little to choose between the McLaren team-mates, Oscar Piastri was a couple of places behind Norris in both sprint qualifying and the sprint race, the separation being largely the consequence of being eight-hundredths behind in Saturday’s session. 

Piastri’s sprint race was a little unfortunate, as he was on course to beat Antonelli once the Mercedes driver’s penalty was added before the safety car. He also had to give back the position he gained when Antonelli ran very wide exiting the final corner for the restart before the line.

Like Norris, Piastri was thereabouts in terms of his performance level, given what the McLaren was capable of. 

Failing to start the race through no fault of their own reduced the opportunity to grasp a higher ranking.

Verdict: By a tiny margin, the second-best McLaren driver.

Sprint: 14th Started: 12th Finished: 10th

Franco Colapinto’s weekend looked to be going the way of Melbourne with a struggle for pace, but he made progress even though that still only carried him to three-tenths off Gasly in qualifying proper.

The grand prix itself was a strong one, starting on hards and being forced to stay out under the safety car, which promoted him to second place but was a big negative for his race overall - although he held his own while up there and did his best to assist his team-mate.

He pitted and emerged in front of Ocon, who promptly clattered into him at Turn 3. Colapinto was the innocent victim in that, both losing time immediately to the spin and sustaining floor damage that made what was always going to be a final stint in which he needed to make gains harder.

He couldn’t quite get close enough to Sainz to challenge for ninth, but at least salvaged his first Alpine point.

Verdict: Still off Gasly’s level but deserved more than a point.

Sprint: 16th Started: 22nd (pits)  Finished: DNS

We now move into a two-driver tier of those who had very little opportunity to impress, given problems. The car was never right, with repeated changes of suspension components and settings and twice breaking parc before the races, proving Williams never got to the root cause of the trouble.

That makes any fair comparison with Sainz impossible, given the car probably didn’t have the same performance potential and the imperfections in Albon’s driving will be at least partly attributable to that.

Albon didn’t even get to start the race owing to a hydraulic problem independent of his other troubles. While these problems made it impossible for him to attain a decent ranking, largely through no fault of his own, he finds himself above only the group of drivers who made significant errors or actively underwhelmed.

Verdict: A futile weekend.

Sprint: 18th Started: 20th Finished: DNF

Lance Stroll can’t be blamed for doing very little to catch the attention beyond grinding to a halt and causing the safety car in the grand prix given the limitations of the Aston Martin.

However, he never showed anything like the pace or incisiveness of his team-mate and the big gaps in qualifying suggest there was unexploited potential in his car - assuming it was in similar condition to Alonso’s, which the team has given no indication it wasn’t.

He complained of understeer and rear locking in qualifying, and it’s perhaps no surprise that he’s limited more by this tricky-to-drive car than his team-mate. 

Verdict: Made no impression, but had little opportunity to.

Sprint: DNF Started: 15th Finished: 12th

Arvid Lindblad marks the start of the group of drivers who were all respectable but made significant errors.

Of all of them, Lindblad is the most unfortunate given he had a grand total of one flying lap among the six he completed in FP1 before grinding to a halt on his first experience of the Shanghai International Circuit.

Within that context, being three-and-a-half tenths off Lawson in sprint qualifying was more than respectable.

The sprint went badly with a spin before a mid-race retirement, but in qualifying proper he was right with Lawson - although that gap might have been a little larger had they been able to complete their final Q2 laps without yellow flags in the way.

Lindblad started on hards and held points early on, but the timing of the safety car worked against him and meant a big deficit to his team-mate in the final results.

Verdict: Plenty of good here, but sprint spin not ideal.

Sprint: 15th Started: 9th Finished: 8th

Hadjar’s pace relative to Verstappen continues to catch the attention, proving that he’s holding his own and not far behind.

Unfortunately, the limitations of the Red Bull package mean that pace wasn’t put to use beyond fighting in the midfield.

The main qualifying deficit of 0.128s seemed broadly representative after an unexpected lack of deployment left him half-a-second behind in sprint qualifying. However, both of his races were compromised.

In the sprint, that was through no fault of his own as he was clattered by Antonelli on lap one and sustained front wing damage, meaning he lost any chance of points, but in the race it was down to a lap-one spin that left him playing catch up after pitting at the end of the first lap.

Verdict: Pace is impressive, but lap-one spin hurts ranking. 

Sprint: 19th Started: 21st Finished: 15th

The timesheets don’t show it, but his underlying pace was fundamentally similar to Bottas’s on the driving side. It’s just that he endured a litany of problems.

On Friday, a fuel pump problem struck in FP1 and kept him out of sprint qualifying and meant an inevitable run to last battling front-left graining in Saturday’s race.

Qualifying was stymied by a deployment problem on his only run outside of Perez’s control, meaning the 1.5s deficit is irrelevant when evaluating his performance.

What hurts Perez’s ranking is the injudicious lunge on Bottas at Turn 3 that put both Cadillacs at risk. As he said “that was all on me, I saw the gap, I went for it, but Valtteri didn’t have anywhere to go”.

His final race result was also compromised by periods where deployment problems cost him significant time, costing him more than 20 seconds.

Verdict: Quick, but troubled, and Bottas clash was needless.

Sprint: 13th Started: 16th Finished: DNS

Bortoleto admitted to “not feeling as comfortable as I was in Melbourne”, which wasn’t helped by gear-selection glitches that struck on Friday.

The 0.148s deficit to Hulkenberg in sprint qualifying was more representative than the 0.654s in main qualifying given he binned it after attempting to carry too much speed into the final corner on his last Q2 lap.

His midfield-leading Q1 lap grabbed the attention, but it proved to be an anomaly as in Q2 he struggled more with the balance and was back to being slower than Hulkenberg, as he was almost all weekend. 

Bortoleto’s own conclusion was that “he has always been that one tenth, tenth-and-a-half faster than me”.

He had a decent sprint race, holding off Verstappen for some time, but was not able to start the grand prix.

Verdict: Combination of pace deficit and the Q2 off ensure a lowly ranking. 

Sprint: 10th Started: 13th Finished: 14th

Corner-entry instability and brake lock-ups emerging from the characteristics created by the new regulations, limited his qualifying pace.

Unlike in Melbourne, where he appeared to have the edge on Bearman until Q2, he was a little slower and the one-and-a-half-tenth gap in sprint qualifying seemed about representative given Q2 was compromised by yellow flags.

He finished a solid 10th in the sprint, behind Max Verstappen, but was disadvantaged in the grand prix by the safety car after starting on hards. He was on course to climb back into the points after he stopped, but ruined his race with what he apologetically admitted was a rash move on Colapinto.

Verdict: Race blunder tanks his ranking.