Six races into 2026, Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s win in Monte Carlo sustains an ultra-low mean finishing position, while the biggest talking points come from volatility behind him.
By Julian Reyes
Andrea Kimi Antonelli remains the benchmark for 2026’s Best average race finish after round 6 in Monaco, and the numbers underline why. From pole (grid 1) he won at the Circuit de Monaco, adding 25 points and another “Finished” classification to leave him on an extraordinary 1.17 average finishing position across his race entries.
Crucially for a metric that counts every classified result—including retirements at their classification order—Monaco didn’t introduce any wobble at the top. With no leader change and no movement in the top three, Antonelli continues to sit ahead of Lewis Hamilton (3.83) and Charles Leclerc (6.50). That gap matters: at this stage the ranking is less about a single great Sunday and more about whether anyone can keep their average from being dragged upward by one bad classification.
The weekend’s sharpest swing belonged to Oliver Bearman, and it’s exactly the kind of swing this ranking is designed to punish. Bearman started 19th, was classified 20th with a “Retired” status after 27 laps, and that result drops him five places in the standings—from 9th to 14th—at a 12.50 average. Because retirements are still counted at their classification order here, one low classification can reshape a season profile quickly, especially with only 6 races completed.
Lando Norris also took a notable hit, sliding four positions from 6th to 10th on an 11.50 average. The contrast inside McLaren is immediate: while Norris slipped backwards in this consistency table, Oscar Piastri moved the other way, illustrating how this ranking can diverge from broader narratives and instead spotlight who is simply banking solid classifications week after week.
Piastri’s Monaco was a clean, points-paying consolidation that translates neatly into this metric. Starting 7th and finishing 5th with a “Finished” status for 10 points, he climbed three places in the ranking—from 10th to 7th—now sitting on a 10.17 average.
That number puts him in the same conversation as the cut-off battles around the top 10, and it’s also a reminder that this table rewards the accumulation of decent results. Without needing a headline-grabbing win, a 5th-place finish can be a meaningful lever when the standings are being shaped by averages rather than totals.
Monaco also reshaped the edges of the top 10. Liam Lawson is the fresh entry, jumping three places from 11th to 8th and landing at a 10.33 average for RB F1 Team. In a ranking with a minimum of 3 races and no estimates for anyone below that threshold, simply remaining eligible while stacking respectable classifications is half the job—and Lawson has now turned that into a top-10 presence.
The counter-story is Bearman’s exit from the top 10, a direct consequence of that Monaco retirement being counted in full. Elsewhere, Isack Hadjar made one of the stronger climbs outside the headline trio, improving three spots from 14th to 11th on an 11.83 average for Red Bull, underscoring how quickly the mid-pack of this ranking can reshuffle when the margins are measured in finishing positions, not points.
| Driver | Team | Before | After | Δ | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oliver Bearman | Haas F1 Team | 9 | 14 | -5 | 12.50 |
| Lando Norris | McLaren | 6 | 10 | -4 | 11.50 |
| Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 10 | 7 | +3 | 10.17 |
With six races logged, Antonelli’s 1.17 is the kind of cushion that only sustained front-end classifications can threaten; the more immediate battle is behind, where a single retirement-level classification can eject a driver from the top 10 while steady top-five/top-10 finishes steadily compress the order.