Pierre Gasly’s climb from ninth on the grid to third at Monaco powered a six-place jump in the season ‘Most positions gained’ ranking. Up front, Max Verstappen stays narrowly ahead of Liam Lawson, but the chase pack is reshuffling fast after six rounds.
By Diego Torres
Pierre Gasly delivered the standout movement of the Monaco Grand Prix in Monte Carlo by turning a P9 start into a P3 finish over 78 laps, a six-place gain that has a clear knock-on effect in the season-long ‘Most positions gained’ table. That +6 swing in one afternoon lifts the Alpine driver from 14th to 8th overall on +7 for the year, and it matters because this ranking rewards repeatable recovery drives rather than single headline results.
At the top, the order remains unchanged even as Monaco added more volatility to the underlying numbers. Max Verstappen continues to lead on +17 and Liam Lawson remains second on +16, so the margin is still just one place across the season’s six classified races. Verstappen’s Monaco was an outlier in pure grid-versus-finish terms — he started 2nd but was classified as retired — yet the cumulative cushion he built earlier still keeps him ahead, with Lawson close enough that any swing week can rewrite the lead.
Behind them, the biggest positional shake-up comes from Esteban Ocon, whose season total has now reached +10. That’s enough for a five-place rise from 9th to 4th in the ranking, putting him directly behind Fernando Alonso (+11) in third and tightening the battle for that final podium spot in the table. RB’s Arvid Lindblad also made a six-place jump — from 18th to 12th on +4 — which highlights how quickly midfield totals can move when the gaps are small.
There’s also churn at the edge of the top 10, with Gasly becoming a new entrant and Lando Norris and Nico Hülkenberg dropping out. Norris’ Monaco result swung the other way in this metric: he started 8th but was classified as retired after 43 laps, and he falls five places in the standings from 8th to 13th despite holding +3 overall. With the season only six rounds in, the top of the table is defined by consistency as much as peak recoveries — and Monaco just underlined how quickly that can change.
| Driver | Team | Before | After | Δ | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pierre Gasly | Alpine F1 Team | 14 | 8 | +6 | +7 |
| Arvid Lindblad | RB F1 Team | 18 | 12 | +6 | +4 |
| Esteban Ocon | Haas F1 Team | 9 | 4 | +5 | +10 |
Verstappen’s lead stays intact at +17, but Lawson is still only one place back on +16, so the next meaningful swing could decide the top spot. Gasly’s jump into the top 10 and Ocon’s rise to fourth compress the battle behind the top two, while the exits of Norris and Hülkenberg show how fragile those back-end top-10 positions can be after just six races.