POWER RANKINGS: Who earned a perfect score from our judges after another Baku thriller?

Oscar Piastri came out on top in a pulsating battle for victory on the streets of Baku, with Charles Leclerc, Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz also in contention until the dying moments. But who impressed our Power Rankings judges the most? Read on to find out...

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)

Oscar Piastri continued his fine run of form by splitting the Ferraris on the grid at the Baku City Circuit and then brilliantly passsing Charles Leclerc for the race lead just after the pit stop phase. What followed was a defensive masterclass with all the right answers to Leclerc’s relentless questions. It apparently went down as “the most stressful afternoon of my life”, but the Australian made it look easy.

After a stunning lap for his fourth successive pole on Azerbaijan’s streets, Leclerc finally looked set to turn one of them into victory. Piastri, though, had other ideas, launching past the Ferrari man at the start of Lap 20 and keeping him at bay thereafter. Leclerc admitted post-race that he could have done more to maintain P1, and was perhaps left to rue the impact of his FP1 crash, which compromised his data-gathering, but it was still a strong display from the Monegasque.

Franco Colapinto made a positive impression on debut at Monza, but the streets of Baku were always going to pose more of a challenge – and an FP1 shunt threatened to derail his weekend before it had started. However, the Argentinian showed plenty of confidence to bounce back and all but match experienced team mate Alex Albon’s pace through qualifying and the race, with his standout Q3 appearance and maiden points finish earning plenty of plaudits.

After their attention-grabbing presentation of Adrian Newey at the start of the week, Aston Martin were out of the spotlight in Azerbaijan as they fought for the tail-end of the points. But, as is so often the case with their two-time world champion driver, Fernando Alonso rung the neck out of the car underneath him to reach Q3 and bag a fine reward in the race – P6 marking the team’s best result since Canada back in June. His efforts left our judges suitably impressed.

HIGHLIGHTS: Relive the action from Baku as Piastri takes exhilarating victory in dramatic fight for the win

Alex Albon finished the race on the back of Alonso’s car to claim an excellent seventh position and give Williams their best result of the season. It came via an alternative hard-to-medium tyre strategy, rather than the medium-to-hard used by most drivers, with the Thai-British racer getting plenty of TV coverage in the closing laps as he picked off rival cars and broke back into the points-paying places.

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Ollie Bearman had a little more time to prepare for his Baku super-sub appearance at Haas after a whirlwind experience with Ferrari in Saudi Arabia. He immediately found a rhythm on Friday and brushed aside the frustration of an FP3 accident to out-qualify and finish ahead of team mate Nico Hulkenberg, having gained ground amid the late Virtual Safety Car drama. It was another confident run from the teenager who will be itching to get his full-time career under way.

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Sergio Perez entered the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend looking to get his season firmly back on track, with some positive memories for the Red Bull racer to draw on given his two previous wins in the country. He seemed to channel that from the outset, lapping quicker than team mate Max Verstappen in qualifying and running ahead in the race, only for what would have been a breakthrough result to end in disaster thanks to a clash with Carlos Sainz on the penultimate lap.

Lando Norris feared an “impossible” task after his shock exit in Q1, having been caught out by yellow flags and failed to get a quick enough lap in. But the Briton enjoyed a much stronger race than he anticipated, adopting the same hard-to-medium strategy as Albon en route to an eventual P4 finish, with the bonus of the fastest lap point and a late move on championship rival Verstappen.

Sainz was in the shadows of team mate Leclerc through qualifying and for most of the race, admitting that “I’ve never really been 100% hooked up around here in my career”. But the Spaniard kept his head down and, as Piastri, Leclerc and Perez squabbled over the lead, he made it a four-way fight for honours heading into the closing laps. What could have been a visit to the podium then went out of the window when he tangled with Perez and both drivers finished in the wall.

George Russell endured a difficult start to the Baku weekend with power unit problems that hampered his running in practice. He overcame those well to lead the Mercedes charge in qualifying, placing fifth to team mate Lewis Hamilton’s seventh – prior to the latter taking an engine penalty. Russell spent a chunk of his race dicing with Verstappen, before breaking clear and being in the right place at the right time to grab a podium after the Perez/Sainz clash.

Missing out

Pierre Gasly was close to the top 10 cut after recovering from an engine penalty of his own to finish 12th for Alpine, followed by Hulkenberg, who was unfortunate not to score points, and Verstappen, who spent qualifying and the race battling balance issues after changes sent his set-up “over the edge”.

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POWER RANKINGS: Who earned a perfect score from our judges after another Baku thriller?

How it works

Missing out

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