The Japanese Grand Prix flips the top of the Most overtakes ranking, with Nico Hülkenberg jumping from fourth to first on 23, one ahead of Max Verstappen. Behind them, Liam Lawson’s 19 keeps him in touch as the top 10 reshuffles sharply.
By Julian Reyes
Suzuka has produced a clear change at the top of the 2026 Most overtakes table: Nico Hülkenberg is the new leader on 23, displacing previous leader Max Verstappen, who now sits second on 22. It’s a decisive swing in the standings even if the margin is razor-thin, because Hülkenberg didn’t just inch ahead — he vaulted from fourth to first in a single round.
That jump is the headline statistic of the ranking after three races completed. Hülkenberg’s movement of +3 places is the biggest upward story at the front, and it matters because this metric is built from lap-by-lap position changes that only count as real passes when they happen with both cars running, filtering out pit-only shuffles unless the gain is strategic and sticks to the finish. In other words, the lead change is grounded in durable track position gains across the season’s recorded lap charts, not a quirk of timing.
Verstappen’s demotion to second doesn’t read like a collapse — it reads like a tight, developing duel where a single overtake’s worth of swing can change the identity of the leader. With only 1 separating them, the next few races can rapidly tilt the balance again without anyone needing an extraordinary outlier performance.
The top three is now Hülkenberg (23), Verstappen (22) and Liam Lawson (19), and the key takeaway is that this isn’t a runaway. Lawson is four back from the lead after Suzuka, close enough that one strong weekend of on-track progress could reframe the fight at the front — especially because the ranking is cumulative and sensitive to small differences in how often drivers move forward through the field.
What makes the new top three notable is that it changed at the same time as the lead changed. That combination suggests the early-season pattern is still forming: the same weekend that elevated Hülkenberg to P1 also kept pressure on Verstappen and left Lawson well-positioned as the next-most-consistent threat in this specific measure of racecraft and strategic positioning that actually converts into lasting positions.
Hülkenberg wasn’t the only big mover, but he was the biggest story: +3 (4th to 1st) and now the benchmark at 23. George Russell matched that +3 climb, going from eighth to fifth on 16, while Isack Hadjar also rose +3 from 11th to eighth on 14 — a meaningful push because it carried him into the top 10 rather than merely improving mid-table.
The sharpest drop belongs to Carlos Sainz and Franco Colapinto, both down five places. Sainz fell from fifth to 10th on 13, while Colapinto went from sixth to 11th on 13 and, crucially, out of the top 10 entirely. Pierre Gasly also slid back, dropping from 10th to 13th on 10 — another top-10 exit that underlines how unforgiving this ranking is once the midfield compresses.
Hülkenberg’s Japanese Grand Prix result provides an important bit of context for why this ranking can diverge from broader narratives: he started 13th and finished 11th, completing 53 laps and scoring 0 points, yet still emerges as the season’s overtake leader. That contrast is the point — the methodology rewards sustained, recorded position gains, including strategic gains that stick, rather than points outcomes.
Sainz offers the counter-example in the same race: grid 16th to finish 15th over 53 laps with 0 points, and his season ranking drops to 10th despite holding 13 overtakes. With the top now separated by just 1 at the very front and the top 10 boundary moving underneath, the stakes are clear: every weekend can reshape not just who leads, but who is even visible in the top tier of this category.
| Driver | Team | Before | After | Δ | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carlos Sainz | Williams | 5 | 10 | -5 | 13 |
| Franco Colapinto | Alpine F1 Team | 6 | 11 | -5 | 13 |
| Nico Hülkenberg | Audi | 4 | 1 | +3 | 23 |
After three races, the Most overtakes lead has flipped — and it’s a margin-of-one fight between Hülkenberg (23) and Verstappen (22). With Lawson on 19 and the top-10 cutoff shifting rapidly, the next rounds are likely to be defined as much by small, lasting position gains as by headline results.