Carlos Sainz has gained the most positions on lap one in F1 2026: +30. Behind the leader come Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin, +30), Esteban Ocon (Haas F1 Team, +28), Liam Lawson (RB F1 Team, +22) and Franco Colapinto (Alpine F1 Team, +22). First to fifth is separated by 8. Total positions gained from the grid by the end of the opening lap.
The Singapore Grand Prix rewrote the top of the table: Carlos Sainz climbed 1 place into first. Nobody has pushed harder over the last three rounds than Nico Hülkenberg (Audi): +2, 0, +2 across Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia and Singapore Grand Prix — comfortably clear of the level set over the rest of the season. Going the other way, Pierre Gasly (Alpine F1 Team) has given up the most ground: -1, -4, -2 across Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia and Singapore Grand Prix, below the standard set earlier in the year.
So why is this ranking worth your time? Because it is exactly the kind of question every fan argues about and almost nobody actually counts. This one is counted: 23 drivers and 17 races of the F1 2026 season, built race by race from the official classifications. No votes, no opinions, no cherry-picked highlights — if a driver moves here, something real happened on track. And it recomputes itself after every Grand Prix, so the next time the argument comes up, the answer is already up to date.
Updated after the Singapore Grand Prix
Through 17 rounds of 2026, Carlos Sainz (Williams) leads this table at +30, built from 17 counted races.
Behind him, Fernando Alonso holds second on +30, while Esteban Ocon rounds out the top three at +28.
Every figure here comes straight from the official results — no votes, no narratives, just the classification sheets. The big mover this round is Carlos Sainz, up 1 place to P1. Arvid Lindblad heads the other way, down 3 places to P8.
Round 17 at the Singapore Grand Prix leaves the “Most positions gained on lap one” ranking finely balanced at the top: Carlos Sainz (Williams) still leads on +30 after 17 races counted, but Fernando Alonso is level with +30 in second. Esteban Ocon holds third on +28, keeping the podium positions tightly packed. In the movers, Sainz climbed 1 place to P1, while Franco Colapinto also rose 1 to P5 on +22 and Sergio Pérez gained 1 to P6 on +19. The biggest drop came from Arvid Lindblad, down 3 to P8 despite sitting on +17, and both Alonso and Pierre Gasly slipped 1 place to P2 (+30) and P12 (+7) respectively. The standout theme this week is how volatile the order is even when the totals are strong: a shared lead hasn’t prevented position shuffling behind it, which underlines how quickly the chase group can be rearranged from one update to the next.
For every race where a driver started from a proper grid slot (pit-lane starts, grid 0, are excluded — there is no grid slot to measure from) and lap-1 timing data is available, we take grid position minus classified position at the end of lap 1. Positive means places gained in the opening lap. The ranking sums those per-race gains across the season. Races without lap-1 data on record are excluded entirely for that driver, never estimated. A minimum of 3 counted races is required. Ties are broken by total season points, then alphabetically.
For every race where a driver started from a proper grid slot (pit-lane starts, grid 0, are excluded — there is no grid slot to measure from) and lap-1 timing data is available, we take grid position minus classified position at the end of lap 1. Positive means places gained in the opening lap. The ranking sums those per-race gains across the season. Races without lap-1 data on record are excluded entirely for that driver, never estimated. A minimum of 3 counted races is required. Ties are broken by total season points, then alphabetically.
After every Grand Prix. The standings above reflect results through the Singapore Grand Prix.
A higher value is better — the driver at the top of the table is the strongest by this measure.
Carlos Sainz (Williams), with +30.