After 10 races, Lewis Hamilton’s 3.60 average race finish still sets the benchmark, even as the chasing pack reshuffles. Max Verstappen’s Belgian GP third place triggers the biggest climb, while Pierre Gasly slips the wrong way after finishing 11th.
By Julian Reyes
Lewis Hamilton remains the reference point in the 2026 Best average race finish ranking after Spa, holding P1 with a 3.60 mean classification across 10 race entries. His Belgian Grand Prix result – finishing 4th from 5th on the grid – wasn’t a headline-grabber in isolation, but in a metric that counts every finish and classifies retirements by their official order, it’s exactly the sort of steady return that protects a lead.
The bigger story from Belgium is the movement immediately behind him. Max Verstappen delivered the largest swing of the update, vaulting from 9th to 6th after taking 3rd at Spa from grid position 2. That one result doesn’t rewrite the top of the table, but it compresses the midfield of this ranking and adds pressure to anyone hovering around the top positions on the strength of a few standout days rather than a dependable baseline.
Hamilton’s advantage is clear, but it is not a one-man runaway. Andrea Kimi Antonelli sits 2nd on a 4.20 average finish, and Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc is now 3rd on 6.50 after moving up one position in the ranking. With a top three separated by identifiable steps rather than a single cluster, the key dynamic is who can turn sporadic peaks into repeated top classifications as the season moves beyond its 10-race sample.
Leclerc’s rise matters because it also coincides with a reshuffle at Mercedes: George Russell drops from 3rd to 4th with a 6.90 average. In other words, Ferrari occupies both 1st and 3rd in a ranking designed to reward finishing outcomes above all else, while Mercedes holds 2nd and 4th. At this stage, small shifts in finishing position can have outsized ranking impact because every round adds another data point without removing an old one.
Verstappen’s three-place gain is the headline mover, and the shape of it suits what this ranking measures: average classified finish, with no special protection against bad days. His current figure of 8.90 is still some distance from the front, but the jump from 9th to 6th shows how quickly a strong classification can change the narrative when the table is compact around the edges of the top group.
Two other swings underline how unforgiving the method is. Isack Hadjar climbs from 10th to 8th for Red Bull with a 9.40 average, while Pierre Gasly falls from 7th to 9th on 9.60 after finishing 11th at Spa, having started 10th and qualified 12th. Liam Lawson also slides, dropping from 8th to 10th on a 9.70 average. None of these moves require a retirement to be costly; a merely middling finish can be enough to concede ground when rivals bank cleaner results.
The clearest theme is stability at the very top and volatility just beneath it. The leader did not change, yet the top three did, and the biggest movements are happening among drivers whose averages sit around the edges of the leading pack rather than right at it. That split is important: Hamilton’s 3.60 sets a standard that is hard to shift without a sequence of results, while the 6th-to-10th region is sensitive to single-race swings.
Spa also reinforces why this ranking is a different lens from points or ‘consistency’ tables that exclude DNFs. Here, everything stays in the calculation, so a driver’s ability to keep producing classified finishes near the front becomes the main currency. With 10 rounds logged, the sample is large enough to reveal genuine patterns — but still small enough that a couple of strong classifications can materially change who is knocking on the door of the top five.
| Driver | Team | Before | After | Δ | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 9 | 6 | +3 | 8.90 |
| Isack Hadjar | Red Bull | 10 | 8 | +2 | 9.40 |
| Pierre Gasly | Alpine F1 Team | 7 | 9 | -2 | 9.60 |
Hamilton’s 3.60 average keeps him comfortably in control of the Best average race finish metric, but Spa tightened the battle behind: Leclerc’s move to 3rd and Verstappen’s jump to 6th show how quickly the order can shift when every classified result counts.