Two rounds into 2026, the qualifying teammate duels have already reshaped the order: Oliver Bearman is the new pacesetter at 2–0, while last round’s leader George Russell has dropped from first to ninth on a 1–1 record.
By Camille Fontaine
The lead of the Teammate head-to-head (qualifying) ranking has changed hands after the Chinese Grand Prix, with Oliver Bearman moving to the top on a 2–0 record for Haas F1 Team. That perfect start matters in a metric that’s brutally binary: in each qualifying session where exactly two drivers from the same constructor set a position, the higher-placed qualifier scores the win, and the table is ordered by wins first, then win rate.
The headline swing is what happened to George Russell. He arrived in Shanghai as the previous leader, but he’s now ninth, having fallen eight places from P1 to P9 with his record levelled to 1–1 for Mercedes. That’s the kind of early-season volatility this ranking produces: after just two races completed, one session can turn a 100% record into parity, and parity is expensive when others are still stacking clean 2–0 starts.
Bearman isn’t alone on 2–0. Pierre Gasly is second for Alpine F1 Team and Liam Lawson is third for RB F1 Team, both also unbeaten after the opening two rounds. The top three being entirely made up of 2–0 records underlines how quickly this ranking separates drivers who have controlled the intra-team qualifying fight from those who’ve already traded blows.
Gasly’s Shanghai weekend also brought one of the biggest jumps anywhere in the table: up three places from fifth to second. Lawson matched that three-place rise from sixth to third. Oscar Piastri made it a trio of notable movers, climbing three spots from seventh to fourth for McLaren to keep the front of the ranking densely packed with perfect records.
Russell’s eight-place fall wasn’t an isolated shock. Charles Leclerc also dropped eight places, from second to 10th, to sit on a 1–1 record for Ferrari. Gabriel Bortoleto took an identical hit: from fourth to 12th, also 1–1 for Audi. In a ranking that sorts by total wins before win rate, moving from 2–0 potential to 1–1 doesn’t just halve your percentage — it also gives unbeaten rivals a win-count advantage you can’t immediately erase.
There’s another layer to watch as the sample grows: this ranking’s pairings exclude any driver who has a qualifying position but no race-result row in that round, rather than guessing. That methodology choice keeps the comparisons clean, but it also means opportunities to add head-to-head wins are strictly limited to sessions where both team-mates are fully present in the data — making each counted duel more valuable.
The Shanghai update reshuffled the top 10 in a way that highlights how quickly the ‘middle’ of this ranking can rotate. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) is fifth on 1–0, Carlos Sainz (Williams) is sixth on 1–0, and Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) is seventh on 1–0 — all inside the top 10 despite having fewer recorded duels than the 2–0 group at the front.
Just as telling are the names that fell out of the top 10: Gabriel Bortoleto, Sergio Pérez and Lewis Hamilton are listed as the exits. In Bortoleto’s case, the eight-place slide to 12th makes the mechanism visible: once you’re 1–1, you’re suddenly vulnerable to any driver with either a second win or an unbeaten start, even if their total sample is smaller.
| Driver | Team | Before | After | Δ | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| George Russell | Mercedes | 1 | 9 | -8 | 1–1 |
| Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 2 | 10 | -8 | 1–1 |
| Gabriel Bortoleto | Audi | 4 | 12 | -8 | 1–1 |
With Bearman, Gasly and Lawson all 2–0 after two races, the early advantage in the qualifying teammate duel is already about win-count control, not just percentage. For Russell, Leclerc and Bortoleto, getting back into the conversation requires rebuilding wins quickly — because at 1–1 they’re already chasing multiple drivers with perfect records and a clear numerical cushion.