There was a high standard throughout the field at the Austrian Grand Prix feeding all the way through from top spot in Edd Straw's Formula 1 driver rankings through to last place.

Find out who secured those spots - and all the positions in-between - below.

Want to quiz Edd on his driver rankings? Sign up to The Race Members' Club to do exactly that - and ask your questions in reply to this post.

Champions-tier members can also try their hand at putting their own driver rankings together for Edd to react to in a separate feature!

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: 1st Finished: 1st

PROS
- Produced a superb final Q3 lap to take a crucial pole position despite sacrificing a tenth-and-a-half for yellow flag.
- Razor-sharp and, by the rules established by the FIA for F1 legal, reaction to qualifying yellow flag allowed him to close out pole.
- Managed his lead well to keep the Max Verstappen/Kimi Antonelli threats just out of reach.

CONS
- Race pace looked fractionally weaker than Antonelli and Verstappen's, but with the caveat that he was managing a lead.
- Antonelli and Verstappen's Q3 setbacks gave him a more straightforward race than he might otherwise have enjoyed.

Verdict: Final Q3 run, in terms of speed and yellow flag reaction, clinches him top spot.

Started: 5th Finished: 2nd

PROS
- Reaching Q3 having run only a used soft in Q2 was a superb effort, giving him two fresh sets for the final stage of qualifying.
- Had similar race pace to the Mercedes drivers, coming close to getting within striking distance of Russell at the end of the second and third stints.
- Incisive in battle in the early laps to climb from fifth on the grid to give him a victory shot.
- Red Bull took responsibility for a rear wing problem that cost him rear load and caused his Q3 shunt, exonerating him for what ostensibly was a major driver error.

CONS
- Last Q3 lap wasn't that quick even before his crash, although that may have been down to aero problem.
- Couldn't quite get himself into a position to attack Russell despite his pace.
- Final stint wasn't quite as quick as it should have been, but with the caveat that "something felt off on the rear of the car"

Verdict: Came close to pulling off an unexpected win.

Started: 12th Finished: 11th

PROS
- Produced arguably the lap of qualifying to put the Audi 12th at a track that didn't play to the car's strengths.
- Had a clear single-lap pace advantage over Nico Hulkenberg, with three-tenths edge relatively evenly-distributed around the lap.
- Drove a strong race to what was probably the best-possible position given the pace of the Racing Bulls.

CONS
- Falling behind Esteban Ocon on the second lap meant he couldn't hang onto the Racing Bulls.

Verdict: Excelled again at the Red Bull Ring.

Started: 9th Finished: 9th

PROS
- Had the edge on Lindblad throughout the weekend.
- Responded well to his team-mate flouting team orders to pass him while he was lifting and coasting in the second stint in terms of his driving.
- Got the best-possible result both in qualifying and the race.

CONS
- The pace of the Racing Bulls meant that a "Class B" win was the par result versus the rest of the midfield.
- While qualifying was strong, lap didn't look as strong relative to car potential as rival midfielder Bortoleto's.

Verdict: Couldn't have done more with car that was class of the midfield.

Started: 7th Finished: 4th

PROS
- Fourth in the race was the best that could have been achieved by a McLaren after a well-executed race.
- Had an underlying pace advantage over Lando Norris.
- Showed he's made gains in these conditions after low-grip struggles last year both with pace and consistency.

CONS
- Didn't execute his final Q3 lap as well as he should have done, meaning he fell behind Norris when he should have been just ahead.
- Path to fourth was eased a little by Ferrari's strategy troubles.

Verdict: Bounced back superbly from Barcelona struggles.

Started: 3rd Finished: 5th

PROS
- Was more at home in the Ferrari than Leclerc despite qualifying just behind.
- Fifth in the race was about all that was possible for him given the strategy he was on, beating two cars that had the potential to beat him, even though Ferrari's race pace was comparable to McLaren and made fourth achievable.
- Performed well in battle versus Charles Leclerc and in his short-lived scrap with the quicker Verstappen.

CONS
- Q3 execution let him down, with mistakes on the first run, then a little time left on the table on his second run, putting him behind Leclerc.
- Strategy went awry, although Hamilton said he was pushing for a soft-start that he felt would have made finishing fourth possible.

Verdict: Slight Q3 execution shortfall the main criticism.

Started: 13th Finished: 14th

PROS
- Produced a good lap in qualifying, putting what was the eight-fastest car slightly higher than it merited thanks to beating Hulkenberg, Ocon and Franco Colapinto.
- Didn't finish behind anyone he shouldn't have done.
- Had the edge on team-mate Ocon.

CONS
- Being the only midfield driver to make his first stop under VSC allowed him to jump Ocon.
- Lost a couple of places to a bad start.

Verdict: Good weekend in only the eight-best car.

Started: 17th Finished: DNF

PROS
- Produced a good lap at the end of Q1 despite a last-corner moment after carrying a little too much speed into the corner to put Williams about where it could be.
- Was running ahead of Albon in a net 13th place at the point he retired with an electrical problem in the power unit.
- Would probably have finished about as high up as was possible had the car lasted.

CONS
- Could have picked off Ocon in the slower Haas and slipped into Q2 given he was only 0.021s behind.
- Didn't have the opportunity to let the race play out after retiring in the second stint.
- Struggled at times in practice before rallying at the end of Q1 - but given he missed FP1 and had a compromised FP2, that's no great criticism.

Verdict: Doing a good job in the ninth-best car.

Started: 4th Finished: 3rd

PROS
- Even allowing for the tyre offsets he had in the second and third stints (five and eighth laps respectively) his underlying race pace seemed fractionally quicker than Russell's.
- Strong second and third stints got him to within a few tenths of catching Verstappen.
- Looked slightly more comfortable than his team-mate through practice before the final Q3 run flipped the script.

CONS
- Failing to differentiate between single and double yellow, which he described as "my mistake", cost him a likely second on the grid.
- Had already lost initiative to Russell on the final qualifying lap. He was already just under 0.17s off on the last Q3 lap before his team-mate's lift.
- As he put it, "was a bit too excited in the first few laps and definitely didn't drive well", with off-track moments on the opening lap shuffling him back to fifth at the start of a difficult first stint.

Verdict: Q3 yellow flag mistake and early laps cost him.

Started: 11th Finished: 13th

PROS
- Produced a good effort in qualifying to come within a few hundredths of slipping into Q3 ahead of Verstappen.
- Losses on the first lap appear to be more down to unexpected power deficit than anything he did wrong.
- Outperformed Colapinto over the weekend.

CONS
- Car's balance and degradation problems meant his race was a painful one of containing struggles.
- Almost but didn't quite make the strategy work to beat Hulkenberg.

Verdict: A decent weekend that presented limited opportunities.

Started: 6th Finished: 7th

PROS
- Produced a good lap at the end of Q3 to string together his three best sectors and pip team-mate Piastri by just nine thousandths.
- Could have beaten Hadjar but for being passed by an undercut at the first stops as McLaren flirted with extending the stint.

CONS
- Piastri seemed to have an underlying pace advantage, which did show in the race.
- Didn't have a great first lap, slipping behind Piastri.
- Beating Leclerc was largely down to Ferrari's strategy missteps.

Verdict: A difficult weekend where Piastri had the edge.

Started: 2nd Finished: 8th

PROS
- Outqualified Hamilton by 0.089s, with that advantage partly down to his better Q3 execution and also a set-up that gave him a little more front end.
- Pace was not as bad as he suggested after the race, with more time compromised by traffic than Hamilton.

CONS
- Outwitted by Hamilton early on then spent the rest of the race working his way back from fourth, which was an achievable position, to eighth thanks to deg struggles and poor strategy.
- Still had signs of brake troubles and wasn't as comfortable with the car as Hamilton.

Verdict: Not quite as bad as it looked given Ferrari's pace struggles.

Started: 8th Finished: 6th

PROS
- Qualifying 0.157s off Verstappen was a respectable effort, albeit with Verstappen's qualifying crash potentially skewing this.
- Race pace relative to Verstappen was better than the 28s gap at the chequered flag suggested given his more complicated race and greater time in dirty air.
- Gained two places across the race.

CONS
- Struggled more with the brakes than Verstappen.
- Didn't get as much out of the Red Bull as his team-mate.
- Wasn't ever a threat for the top three, primarily thanks to being, as he said, "not fast" in Q3.

Verdict: Solid weekend, but not at Verstappen's level.

Started: 21st Finished: 18th

PROS
- Had the edge on Lance Stroll in qualifying pace, even if the gap on the final timesheets was bigger than it should have been.
- Couldn't have done much more with the Aston Martin, considering he had to dial back his push level in the race for management reasons.
- Pitlane speeding error appears to be attributable to overheating sensor rather than driver error.

CONS
- Not his fault, but the erratic and difficult Aston Martin is difficult to benchmark performance in and there's little to race for.
- Did fall behind Stroll in the race, although based on radio traffic that seemed dictated by management levels.

Verdict: Did what he could with poor car.

Started: 14th Finished: 12th

PROS
- Drove a decent race to 12th, backing up his team-mate and showing decent pace relative to him in the final stint in particular when on comparable tyres.
- No significant errors meant he brought the Audi home roughly where it should be, which required him getting ahead of Ocon (with an on-track pass in the first stint) and Gasly (via strategy).

CONS
- Felt "on the edge" on single-lap pace and couldn't live with Bortoleto in qualifying.
- Ultimately, wasn't as impressive as his team-mate, making this a good, workmanlike weekend rather than his best work.
- Needed a strategic assist from Alpine to beat Gasly.

Verdict: Second-best Audi driver this weekend.

Started: 10th Finished: 10th

PROS
- He was very close to Lawson's pace in qualifying, just half a tenth off, and was with him throughout the race.
- Made no driving mistakes and closed out a 'midfield 1-2' for Racing Bulls.

CONS
- Disregarding an explicit team order while both drivers were ordered to lift and coast to deal with critical brake temperature concerns to overtake Lawson was a significant misjudgement.
- Was the second-best Racing Bulls driver, but only by a small margin.

Verdict: Would have been significantly higher without team orders nonsense.

Started: 19th Finished: DNF

PROS
- Continued to lead the line for Cadillac.
- Recovered well from Friday disruption to show good underlying pace in qualifying.

CONS
- Made a mistake on his final qualifying lap trying to push the braking for Turn 3 for harvesting gain, which ultimately meant he didn't improve.
- Race was too brief to make an impression with brake overheating setting in immediately.

Verdict: Early retirement cost him the chance to impress in race after inconclusive Q1.

Started: 20th Finished: DNF

PROS
- Would have outqualified Perez had he not picked up the dirty air from his team-mate at the end of the lap and shipped time in Turn 9/10, which meant his final attempt wasn't an improvement.
- More comfortable with the car, when it was working and the floor was properly attached at least, than earlier in the season.

CONS
- Still seems his underlying pace isn't quite as good as Perez's, although he qualified within a tenth.
- Brake disaster in the race meant there was no opportunity to impress.

Verdict: His season is at least gathering momentum in personal performance terms.

Started: 15th Finished: 16th

PROS
- Given his complaints about missing rear downforce compared to the sister car (and the team admits there are parts inconsistencies), that perhaps explains some of the three-tenths deficit to Bearman in qualifying.
- Drove a tidy race and was unfortunate to fall behind his team-mate initially because of the VSC.
- Had a strong first lap-and-a-half to get up to 11th.

CONS
- Some of his disadvantage to Bearman was in his hands.
- Slow second pitstop cost him around three and a half seconds.

Verdict: Second-best Haas driver, but with some mitigations.

Started: 18th Finished: 17th

PROS
- Qualifying pace was better than the 0.257s deficit to Sainz suggested given "changes I was unaware of" caused tyre problems and compromised his final lap.
- Considering car pace and degradation problems, didn't finish behind anyone he shouldn't have done.
- Ran ahead of Colapinto for part of the race, although inevitably he fell behind and was dropped given the significant Williams pace disadvantage, even factoring in the tyre deficit.

CONS
- It's not clear how he would have stacked up against Sainz on the final Q1 run with a fair comparison.
- Williams's weaknesses meant the race was a difficult one to shine in.

Verdict: Another weekend where problems made life difficult.

Started: 22nd Finished: DNF

PROS
- Underlying pace deficit in qualifying was not the 0.421s that the final Q1 result suggests, as it would likely have been more like a tenth and a half.
- Lost a few seconds to Alonso late in the first stint, but caught him and got ahead in the second stint thanks to his team-mate's greater level of management.
- Didn't make any major errors.

CONS
- Lock-up in Turn 4 on final qualifying lap cost him time, but didn't change his position.
- Was the slower Aston Martin driver on underlying pace.

Verdict: A respectable weekend in a difficult car.

Started: 16th Finished: 15th

PROS
- His qualifying pace was much stronger than the near-one-second gap to Gasly suggests, given he lost the rear in the entry to Turn 1 and ran wide, aborting the lap after violating track limits.
- Had a solid race in the circumstances given track position disadvantage at the start cost him.

CONS
- Struggled a bit more with the tricky Alpine than Gasly.
- Didn't nail it when he needed to in qualifying.

Verdict: As strong a 22nd in the rankings as you'll see.