There was a close fight for the top spot in Edd's driver rankings from the entire Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix weekend.

Here's how he rated the 22 drivers' performances across the weekend 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.

Started: 7th Finished: 7th

This ticks all the boxes required of a number-one performance in these rankings.

Pierre Gasly was a key part of Alpine’s turnaround after a difficult Friday when it came to single-lap pace, then got the best out of qualifying by leading the midfield group.

He then held seventh throughout the race, for much of it under intense pressure from Max Verstappen, particularly after the safety car restart, having been more comfortable in the first stint. That required precision, an error-free drive and an intelligent approach to using deployment resources to ensure he kept the Red Bull behind.

While this wasn’t quite the miracle it would have been were Red Bull not struggling, it was still an outstanding drive to achieve the best-possible result by keeping a car that was slightly faster on race pace behind. 

Verdict: Had to be perfect to keep Verstappen behind.

Started: 3rd Finished: 2nd

Oscar Piastri described this as “probably one of my best weekends in F1”, which tells you a lot about how good it was.

While his advantage over team-mate Lando Norris is partly explained by the problems on the other side of the garage that limited practice, there’s no doubt he was getting the maximum out of the McLaren.

The timing of the safety car denied him a shot at pulling off an unlikely victory after doing a superb job in the first stint to keep George Russell covered, although he would have faced a stern challenge from Kimi Antonelli.

Had he been granted access to that particular mission, then it’s possible this would have been elevated to his outright best weekend.

Verdict: Couldn’t have done more.

Started: 1st Finished: 1st

There was no doubt Antonelli was the stronger Mercedes driver at Suzuka, as he was quicker even before Russell struggled with the rear end in qualifying.

Crucially, he seemed to be on top of the required driving style to optimise deployment, an area where Russell was ahead previously.

Want to quiz Edd on his F1 driver rankings? He'll be taking your questions over on The Race Members' Club, where right now it's your last chance to get 90% off your first month. Just use code '2026' at checkout to get your discount. Ask your question by heading to this post.

And don't forget those of you in our Champions tier, can do your OWN ranking too now, by heading to this post.

While the safety car timing handed him the lead, he was unquestionably fast enough to have won the race on merit. He wasn't planning to stop any time soon and lapping quickly on mediums, meaning there’s every chance he could have beaten both Russell and Piastri, who he was effectively behind when the safety car was deployed.

The only real negative is that the poor start was down to his own mistake and being a little too aggressive with the clutch depth, an area he admits he must improve on. That’s the only factor that acts as a tie-breaker in the three-driver top tier in these rankings.

Verdict: A statement of his title intent. 

Started: 4th Finished: 3rd

Charles Leclerc heads the second tier of drivers, all of whom were operating at a high level and delivered strong weekends.

He was the quicker Ferrari driver, and it was only the disadvantage of pitting before the safety car that meant he had to battle with Lewis Hamilton for that privilege in the final stint of the race.

Leclerc prevailed in the wheel-to-wheel fight between the duo, and ended up with a richly deserved podium finish after getting ahead of the energy-starved Russell.

The only real negative of the weekend, which is what puts him to the top of the second tier of drivers in this ranking, is that Q3 wasn’t well-executed, as had he shown the sort of pace he did earlier in qualifying he could well have beaten Piastri.

Verdict: Led the line for Ferrari.

Started: 12th Finished: 10th

After frustrating weekends in Australia and China, Esteban Ocon returned to form in Japan, where he felt he maximised the potential of the car for the first time since last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

That meant he outqualified team-mate Ollie Bearman by a couple of tenths, then had a strong opening stint of the race in which he held ninth. He was among the drivers compromised by the timing of the safety car, but he was the only one of the minor points contenders on the wrong end of that to finish in the points.

Had he been ahead of Liam Lawson, he was confident he had the pace to have stayed with the Verstappen/Gasly battle. 

Verdict: Another strong weekend for his Suzuka collection.

Started: 14th Finished: 9th

Looked to have the edge over team-mate Arvid Lindblad in practice, although it wasn’t a clear comparison given the problems on the other side of the garage.

However, qualifying didn’t go well, with front wing damage that wasn’t caused by any obvious misadventure on Lawson’s part, leading to it being swapped between Q2 runs but without the chance to adjust the flap angle.

He wasn’t able to advance to Q3, lapping four-tenths off Lindblad. Although there were mitigating circumstances, that was a disappointment.

Twelfth in the first stint, the timing of the safety car allowed him to jump Ocon, Isack Hadjar and his team-mate, but he drove a strong second stint to keep the quicker Haas behind.

That deserves particular credit given how difficult Hadjar and Lindblad found it in battle at times, given the ERS characteristics of the power unit.

Verdict: Qualifying troubles made life difficult.

Started: 19th Finished: 17th

While Sergio Perez’s weekend wasn’t without problems, notably losing one of his Q1 runs after a deployment problem surfaced on his first attempt, he appeared to extract the best of the machinery.

Despite his qualifying problems, he outpaced Bottas to put himself 19th on the grid, which is as good as can be expected in the 10th-best car.

From there, he drove a good race, finishing ahead of Fernando Alonso and Valtteri Bottas, as well as running ahead of Lance Stroll before the Aston Martin disappeared.

While he inevitably fell back from the midfield, he had a clean race with, for the first time this year, no problems. 

Verdict: Got the best results possible in qualifying and the race.

Started: 16th Finished: 15th

While Carlos Sainz couldn’t repeat his points heroics of China, that was never that likely in a Williams, even though the car proved a little more competitive in the midfield at Suzuka.

He made it into Q2, despite being furious with Hadjar being in his way during Q1, then toiled hard in the midfield to stay in the mix.

He had the edge over Alex Albon even before his team-mate’s race descended into experimentation, and once again managed to hold off Franco Colapinto, having been gifted the advantage over the Alpine driver by the safety car timing.

Verdict: A handy, but unheralded, weekend. 

Started: 10th Finished: 14th

Lindblad starred in qualifying with an excellent qualifying lap in Q2 that he described as a case of “switch off the brain, hope for the best and send it”.

However, he didn’t make the most of Q3, although the deteriorating conditions played a part in that.

Considering a gearbox problem cost him FP2, and he also had his running compromised in FP3, making the top 10 was impressive.

He briefly ran eighth before being shuffled behind Verstappen and Ocon, but was 10th when he made his pitstop three laps before the safety car appeared. As he put it, that switched him from a “defensive race” to an “offensive race”, but while he’d have had a shot at a points finish without the safety car, he took the restart, and finished, 14th.

While he's perhaps the odd one out in this tier, the fact that he was on course for points, and everyone with Red Bull power units struggled to make gains in the race, means that it's difficult to fairly judge his second stint.

Verdict: Safety car cost him on Sunday.

Started: 5th Finished: 5th

Norris tops the third tier of drivers who were not at their best, all being slower than their team-mates in qualifying but delivering varying levels of race drives.

Problems for Norris in both FP2 and FP3 restricted practice running and meant he headed into the race without any long-run experience. That disrupted running played a part in not getting onto Piastri’s level, although in the circumstances, it was a reasonable recovery, even though he perhaps could have been expected to get closer than the 0.277s deficit to his team-mate in qualifying.

His race performance was a good one, especially considering he was among those who pitted before the safety car, and represented a solid recovery given he was able to pass and pull away from Hamilton. 

Verdict: Off Piastri, but with significant mitigation.

Started: 11th Finished: 8th

Verstappen was thoroughly miserable with his situation throughout the weekend, insisting, in line with everything he’s said over the past couple of months, that his unhappiness is primarily about the state of F1’s regulations.

That said, he certainly wasn’t delighted with a Red Bull that lacked grip, never giving him the mid-corner rotation he wanted and that “doesn’t give you any confidence to attack any corner” in qualifying.

The car is more midfielder than member of a ‘big four’ group, so that explains Verstappen being down the order.

However, there are two things we can be certain of that suggest he wasn’t necessarily extracting everything he possibly could. Firstly, he was eliminated in Q2 while team-mate Hadjar advanced, and secondly, he was unable to beat Gasly when “maybe on pure pace we were a tiny bit faster”.

You wouldn’t necessarily blame Verstappen for not being at his razor-sharp best, given his general dissatisfaction in the wider sense, but it has to harm his ranking.

Verdict: Not at his brilliant best. 

Started: 6th Finished: 6th

This was a disappointing weekend for Hamilton, who ended up at the back of the six-car front group.

While he was in contention for a podium finish on track position at one stage in the race after passing Russell at the restart, that was assisted by the timing of the safety car.

He ended up falling behind Norris and Leclerc, which was a fair reflection of his pace which was decent enough but not as strong as Leclerc’s.

It was that kind of weekend for Hamilton, one that started with him lacking confidence in the car during Friday practice at a track that didn’t play to the strengths of the Ferrari. 

Verdict: Solid but unspectacular.

Started: 2nd Finished: 4th

Nothing quite went right for Russell at Suzuka, but at no point did he demonstrate he had Antonelli’s speed.

That was partly down to his driving approach not maximising the deployment in the way his team-mate did, although that was partly down to the expectation that it would be the right strategy come qualifying.

However, a setup mis-step made the rear end a limiting factor and meant he was always a step behind on speed. That he dropped to fourth at the start was the consequence of a brake setting that he had no control over, but although he passed Norris and Leclerc to run second, he couldn’t do anything about Piastri.

Yes, the safety car was terribly timed for him, but even so, he was on a trajectory that meant there was every chance he’d have fallen behind Antonelli anyway. As it was, deployment struggles played a part in him struggling in battle and he couldn’t wrest the final podium position off Leclerc. 

Verdict: Unlucky, but also off his best.

Started: 21st Finished: 18th

Alonso arrived late in Japan after the birth of his first child and sat out FP1 to allow Jak Crawford to complete one of the mandatory rookie practice outings for the season.

Alonso found the car felt “completely normal” during FP2 before the return of the dreaded vibrations on Saturday that led to a struggle in qualifying.

He outpaced team-mate Stroll by three-tenths, but the Aston Martin was not quick enough to do any better than 21st, behind even the Cadillacs. After initially running ahead of Stroll, he fell behind in a move facilitated by a lack of battery, then stayed there until his team-mate’s retirement.

While he suggested that there was some divergence on deployment strategy because “if both cars run together that was maybe some good information in terms of different maps in the engine and energy”, ideally, he would have been ahead of his team-mate.

Verdict: On a hiding to nothing.

Started: 22nd Finished: DNF

Although he qualified last and retired with a loss of water pressure shortly after half distance, this was by some margin Stroll’s strongest weekend of 2026 in terms of his pace relative to Alonso.

He even jumped ahead of his team-mate during the first stint and held the position up to the safety car’s deployment, during which both Aston Martins stopped twice to facilitate completing the race on mediums, then continued to run ahead of Alonso before being ordered into the pits with what the team described as a loss of water pressure. 

Verdict: A big improvement from the first two events.

Started: 17th Finished: 20th

Albon, whose weekend started badly with an FP1 collision with Perez as the Cadillac driver didn’t spot him passing at the chicane, was clearly frustrated by what appeared to be either the team not fully understanding the quirks of these new power units or a struggle to refine his driving style.

“We were quick in all the corners, and we're lacking elsewhere”, he said after being eliminated in Q1, having lapped 0.177s slower than Sainz.

He had a solid race and was close to Sainz, albeit with Colapinto between them, when the team decided to run a series of aero experiments late on, hence his unorthodox six-stop strategy and last-place finish.

Verdict: Frustrated, but a step behind Sainz. 

Started: 8th Finished: 12th

The next tier is for drivers who had uneven weekends, either with qualifying or the race letting them down.

Outpacing Verstappen by a tenth-and-a-half represented a good qualifying performance in the tricky-to-drive Red Bull, although Hadjar was frustrated that he didn’t beat Gasly, having “messed up my final run”.

He had a tough time in the race, running eighth initially but being shuffled back to 11th behind Lindblad, Verstappen and Ocon - and he wasn’t too happy with how robustly stablemate Lindblad fought him. T

his was compounded by pitting before the safety car, leaving him 13th for the restart. Thereafter, the same problem that troubled him in battle of running out of battery made life difficult, and the only position he had gained by the finish was over the struggling Gabriel Bortoleto. While he did have misfortune in the race, his first stint was disappointing.

Verdict: Weekend got away from him in the race.

Started: 9th Finished: 13th

Bortoleto’s weekend was going well until the moment the red lights went out and he dropped from ninth to 13th.

Given the well-known problems with getting the Audi off the line and the fact Nico Hulkenberg had a very similar start, this can’t fairly be blamed on Bortoleto.

However, he then slipped back to 15th as Audi couldn’t match the deployment of rivals and lacked grip.

The safety car timing allowed him to restart 10th as he hadn’t pitted, but falling behind Ocon at the restart was the start of a slide back to a frustrated 13th in a race where points were possible thanks to the safety car.

Verdict: Audi’s problems made life difficult in the race.

Started: 13th Finished: 11th

Hulkenberg couldn’t match Bortoleto in qualifying, admitting that it was “a bit of a mess on my part” and failing to improve on his Q1 pace in Q2.

That meant he was 0.441s behind his team-mate and 0.278s off Q3. He had a terrible start, just like team-mate Bortoleto, thanks to the Audi’s problems off the line and slipped to 19th.

He made some progress in the first stint, but he benefitted from the safety car to take the restart 12th. He turned that into 11th place when he passed Bortoleto, who was powerless to defend owing to his battery state.

In the circumstances, this was a good recovery drive after the bad start, albeit with a little good fortune.

Verdict: Poor qualifying, a good race.

Started: 20th Finished: 19th

After a Friday he described as his smoothest day for Cadillac yet, Bottas had what he described as a straightforward qualifying despite pushing a little hard on his last lap.

However, he always looked to be giving away a fraction to Perez, ending up 0.134s behind his team-mate - but ahead of the two Aston Martins.

He started on hards and slowly lost track with the back of the pack in the race before pitting before the safety car.

He was still at the back for the restart and seemed a chunk off team-mate Perez, meaning he finished there ahead only of the six-stopping Albon.

Verdict: Well off Perez’s level in qualifying and the race.

Started: 15th Finished: 16th

The final tier contains the two drivers involved in the major incident in the race.

While that was primarily about the regulations causing a huge pace offset, given the lack of errors in the race, the combination of this and the fact that both struggled on Saturday means they have to go at the bottom of these rankings, even though on most weekends they wouldn’t have been so low, such was the overall quality throughout the field at Suzuka.

Colapinto confirmed he was running with the same car specification and opportunity as Gasly, but struggled for single-lap speed both on Friday and Saturday.

That led to another disappointing qualifying session in which “we didn’t fully exploit the car’s potential”, with part of the problem seemingly a struggle to improve as the track evolved. He at least made Q2, but the eight-tenths gap to Gasly was far too much.

He ran 14th in the early stages of the race after picking up a place due to Hulkenberg’s terrible start, then got up to 13th ahead of Bortoleto. Then came the sliding doors moment of his race as he pitted on lap 17, before the safety car.

When he came in, he was chasing Lawson, but for the restart, he was seven places behind the Racing Bulls driver down in 16th, which is where he stayed. The gentle move left when Bearman approached would have been no problem previously, but given the knowledge of the pace offsets ideally he’d have done it earlier to leave a margin.

Verdict: Badly lacking qualifying pace.

Started: 18th Finished: DNF

Things never really came together for Bearman, who had a tricky FP1 while trying to optimise upgrades, then ended up being eliminated in Q1.

That was partly down to what he described as a “switch error” on the first run that compromised power, and then his own failure to get the best out of the car on the final run.

Despite that, he was slowly edging his way towards points contention during the first stint, passing Perez, Albon, Sainz before going off at 308km/h and suffering a 50g impact after being caught out by the closing speed and Colapinto’s car positioning.

The regulations should be blamed, but it was also a risk he perhaps should have factored in.

Verdict: A weekend to forget.