The Spanish Grand Prix didn’t change the name at the top of the 2026 Most overtakes ranking, but it tightened the margins: Gabriel Bortoleto stays P1 on 76 as two drivers sit on 73 behind. Further back, Liam Lawson’s rise and Carlos Sainz’s drop reshaped the edge of the top 10 fight.
By Elena Marsh
Gabriel Bortoleto remains the benchmark in the 2026 Most overtakes ranking after round 14 at Madring, but the headline is how little room he now has to breathe. He still leads on 76, with Max Verstappen and Nico Hülkenberg both on 73 — a three-point cushion that can vanish in a single busy race. The top spot didn’t change hands, yet the dynamic did: the chase pack has effectively compressed into a two-car tie right behind him.
There’s also a telling contrast in Bortoleto’s Madrid weekend: he started 12th and ended 13th, classified lapped after 56 laps and scoring 0 points. In a ranking that isolates “genuine on-track overtakes” from pit-lane shuffles, leading the season total doesn’t require a clean headline result every Sunday — but it does put a premium on keeping the weekly flow of passes coming. With Verstappen and Hülkenberg sitting one good race away from turning 76 into a pressure point, Bortoleto’s advantage looks more like a working margin than a safe buffer.
The biggest structural change is in the podium places of the ranking itself: Hülkenberg climbed from 4th to 3rd, reaching 73 and joining Verstappen in a tie for second. That move pushed George Russell down from 3rd to 4th despite Russell still holding a healthy 71 — a reminder of how crowded the top end has become. When third place is separated from fourth by just two overtakes, any single race can shuffle the order even without a change at the top.
Elsewhere in the top 10 conversation, Oscar Piastri edged forward from 7th to 6th on 66, while Isack Hadjar slid the other way, dropping two places from 6th to 8th with 62. Those are not dramatic point swings; they’re positional squeezes that reflect a table where clusters matter. In practical terms, it means the “next tier” below the leaders is now less about a steady climb and more about avoiding a stagnant weekend that lets rivals jump you with a single uptick.
As a small piece of race-day context, the Spanish GP had 4 DNFs — and because this methodology only credits passes while both cars are still running, that kind of attrition doesn’t gift anyone free overtakes. It makes the week-to-week moves we see here more meaningful: the gains have to be earned either on track between consecutive laps, or via a strategic gain that sticks to the finish.
The sharpest movers were shifts of two places — and they all landed in areas where the ranking feels volatile. Liam Lawson jumped from 13th to 11th for Red Bull on 58, a climb that doesn’t read like a breakthrough until you look at what it sets up: he’s now close enough to make the top 10 a realistic target rather than a distant line. In a metric that accumulates throughout the year, being one good weekend away from the headline group can matter as much as already being in it.
Hadjar’s drop (6th to 8th on 62) went the other direction, and it stands out because it comes from a driver already embedded in the top group. It’s also a rare intra-team contrast in this update: two Red Bull drivers moved by the maximum magnitude in opposite directions, highlighting how quickly the table can punish a quiet race in overtaking terms.
Carlos Sainz’s slide had the clearest consequence. He fell from 10th to 12th on 58 and, crucially, he’s the name that exited the top 10 altogether. That matters because the last visible rung is now occupied by Esteban Ocon: he sits 10th for Haas F1 Team on 59, just one overtake ahead of the 58 cluster that includes Sainz — and now Lawson too. The top 10 is turning into a knife-edge where a single net pass across a race weekend can decide who is “in” and who is chasing.
At the top, the math is simple: 76 versus 73 versus 73. With the leader unchanged but the gaps shrinking, the story is about whether Bortoleto can keep producing the steady accumulation that built the advantage, or whether the tie behind him becomes a launchpad. Hülkenberg’s move into a share of second is especially significant because it flips the pressure onto Russell, who now needs momentum just to recover third rather than attack first.
Further down, the ranking’s “edge zones” are where the next swings look most likely. Ocon holding 10th on 59 is a narrow barrier; Sainz and Lawson both sit on 58 outside it. Meanwhile, the mid-top cluster around Hadjar (62) and Piastri (66) suggests another tight band where one strong overtaking race can rewrite the order without any leader change at all.
| Driver | Team | Before | After | Δ | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liam Lawson | Red Bull | 13 | 11 | +2 | 58 |
| Isack Hadjar | Red Bull | 6 | 8 | -2 | 62 |
| Carlos Sainz | Williams | 10 | 12 | -2 | 58 |
Bortoleto still controls the Most overtakes table, but his lead is down to a three-overtake margin over a Verstappen–Hülkenberg tie on 73. Behind them, Russell’s slip to fourth and the razor-thin 10th-place battle (Ocon 59 vs Sainz/Lawson 58) set up the next pressure points without needing any dramatic weekend to trigger change.