Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s victory at the Italian Grand Prix flips the lead of the Best average race finish table, nudging Lewis Hamilton into second on a tight spread. Behind them, Max Verstappen’s Monza podium drives the biggest climb among the key movers, while a Charles Leclerc retirement dents his season-long average.
By Julian Reyes
The Italian Grand Prix has produced a new name at the top of the 2026 Best average race finish ranking: Andrea Kimi Antonelli. His Monza win for Mercedes pushes him from second to first in this metric, with a season average finishing position of 3.69 after 13 races completed. Lewis Hamilton, last round’s leader, drops to second at 3.92 — close enough that the headline change is more about marginal gains than a runaway advantage, but still a meaningful swing in a category built on week-to-week dependability.
Antonelli’s Monza weekend underlines why this ranking can diverge from perceptions of “form”. It counts every race entry in the official classification order, including retirements, so a single outlier finish can hit hard — while a win, like Antonelli’s from a seventh-place qualifying position, is a powerful stabiliser. It also means the gap between first and second is not just about peaks; it’s about avoiding the kind of low classifications that inflate the mean across a 13-race sample.
George Russell holds third for Mercedes at 6.23, which keeps the top three intact in terms of teams even as the order changes at the front. But the bigger story is how little room there is for error at the very top: 3.69 versus 3.92 is the difference between leading this ranking and chasing it, and the methodology rewards the accumulation of solid classifications every time out rather than occasional headline spikes.
That context makes Monza’s retirement story relevant without needing extra drama. The race featured three retirements in total, and in a ranking that explicitly counts retirements at their classification order, every non-finish threatens to pull a season average upward. In other words, the Italian Grand Prix didn’t just hand out points; it sharpened the reliability-and-results equation that defines this table.
Max Verstappen delivered the biggest surge among the highlighted movers, jumping from ninth to sixth — a three-place gain — and settling on an average race finish of 8.92 for Red Bull. The immediate relevance is not that 8.92 suddenly puts him in the same conversation as the 3-point averages up front, but that it drags him back toward the front pack of this metric after sitting outside it. His Monza result helps explain the swing: he finished third and took 15 points, a combination that naturally reduces the drag of any poorer classifications already in the sample.
Nico Hülkenberg also made progress, climbing two spots from 17th to 15th for Audi with a 14.15 average. Movements like this can look modest, but they’re often the clearest indicator of a driver turning a season-long profile away from back-end results and toward mid-table regularity — exactly what this ranking is designed to surface over time.
Charles Leclerc’s drop shows the downside of a ranking that refuses to ignore the worst days. Leclerc falls two places, from third to fifth, with a 7.38 average — and Monza is a stark illustration of why, as his race ended in a retirement after 1 lap, classified 22nd and scoring 0 points. There’s no need to speculate on cause: the status alone is enough to show how quickly a season average can be warped by a single low classification when the field is this tight.
This is also why the Best average race finish ranking can change shape quickly around the top five. Antonelli’s rise is built on maximising high classifications like his Monza win, while Leclerc’s slide is a reminder that one retired result doesn’t just hurt a Sunday — it echoes across the mean. With 13 races already counted, there’s enough sample to take the table seriously, but not so much that big swings are impossible when retirements enter the equation.
| Driver | Team | Before | After | Δ | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 9 | 6 | +3 | 8.92 |
| Nico Hülkenberg | Audi | 17 | 15 | +2 | 14.15 |
| Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 3 | 5 | -2 | 7.38 |
Antonelli’s 3.69 average gives him the narrowest of cushions over Hamilton’s 3.92, so the lead of this ranking now looks like it will be decided by who avoids the occasional low classification rather than who finds the next peak. Verstappen’s move to sixth (8.92) hints at a recovery arc in this metric, while Leclerc’s slide to fifth (7.38) underlines how a single retirement can reshape the top five even with 13 races already in the sample.