Three rounds in, the Best qualifying average table is being shaped by Mercedes’ front-row level consistency: Andrea Kimi Antonelli stays P1 on 1.33 ahead of George Russell on 1.67. Behind them, the fight to be “best of the rest” is already being defined by a much bigger gap to third.
By Nadia Okafor
Andrea Kimi Antonelli remains the benchmark in 2026’s Best qualifying average ranking after the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, holding P1 with a mean qualifying position of 1.33 across the sessions he has entered. The headline, even without a change at the top, is the weight of that number: with only three races completed, it’s an early-season statement of consistent, front-of-grid execution rather than a single standout Saturday.
The Mercedes story gets sharper when you place his advantage against the closest possible reference point. George Russell is second on 1.67, keeping the lead battle entirely in-house at Mercedes and tightly clustered at the sharp end of the metric where every fraction of a grid spot matters. This ranking isn’t about occasional peaks; it’s about a driver repeatedly being near the front of the full field, and right now both Mercedes drivers are doing that better than anyone else.
Suzuka underlined Antonelli’s contribution to that trend with a qualifying position of 1 and a grid slot of 1, converting into a race win (position 1) over 53 laps and 25 points. Points don’t define this particular ranking, but that clean translation from pole to win matters in the wider context: it reinforces that the same weekends driving the best qualifying averages are also producing the kind of results that can become tie-breakers if averages ever converge.
The early shape of the table is stark because of where P3 sits. Charles Leclerc is third with a 4.00 average, meaning the gap from Russell’s 1.67 to Leclerc’s 4.00 is far larger than the separation between the two Mercedes drivers themselves. In practical terms, that makes the lead battle a Mercedes-only affair for now, while the rest of the top 10 is effectively competing for the best non-Mercedes qualifying profile.
From there, the top group compresses again. Oscar Piastri is fourth on 4.33, with Lewis Hamilton fifth on 5.33 and Lando Norris sixth on 5.67. Those numbers suggest there’s still a meaningful difference between consistently starting around fourth and hovering around fifth-to-sixth on average, but it’s a much more conventional, race-to-race swing territory than the almost front-row certainty implied by 1.33 and 1.67.
That gap also sets the stakes for upcoming qualifying sessions: for Leclerc, Piastri, Hamilton and Norris, the immediate target isn’t just improving by a few tenths of a position in the ranking, it’s breaking out of the 4–6 average band to stop the front from disappearing. In a metric that uses the full field and punishes even one off-day, closing that deficit demands repeated, not occasional, top-2 level starts.
The lower half of the top 10 offers its own storyline: drivers already separating themselves in a ranking that requires a minimum of three sessions and therefore rewards early stability. Isack Hadjar sits seventh on 6.67, Pierre Gasly is eighth on 9.33, Arvid Lindblad ninth on 11.33, and Gabriel Bortoleto tenth on 11.67 — a spread that shows how quickly a season can stratify once the minimum-session filter has been met.
The margins down here are revealing in a different way. Lindblad’s 11.33 and Bortoleto’s 11.67 are close enough that a single stronger qualifying could flip that ordering, while Gasly’s 9.33 has a clearer cushion over them. Meanwhile, Hadjar’s 6.67 positions him as the “best of the back half” for now, a useful marker because this methodology measures every qualifying a driver entered and counts the full field, not just the top-10 shootout.
There were no top-10 exits listed after Suzuka, and there are no recorded ‘gainers’ or ‘losers’ in the movements data provided, which points to a table that is beginning to settle rather than swing wildly week to week. That doesn’t mean it’s locked in — with three races completed, the sample is still small — but it does mean each new qualifying result carries outsized influence on the averages, especially for those in tightly matched pairs like P1 vs P2 or P9 vs P10.
With Antonelli still first on 1.33 and Russell second on 1.67, the Best qualifying average fight is currently an internal Mercedes duel, while Leclerc’s 4.00 in third frames a separate battle for “best of the rest”. As more sessions accumulate, the leaders’ advantage becomes harder to overhaul, but the close gaps lower in the top 10 (like 11.33 vs 11.67) remain highly sensitive to one standout Saturday.