Six races into 2026, the metric that tracks average gain from qualifying to classified race finish has a new benchmark: Liam Lawson at +5.33. Monaco also reshuffled the chasing pack, with Lewis Hamilton, Andrea Kimi Antonelli and George Russell all sliding back in the ranking.
By Diego Torres
The Monaco Grand Prix has flipped the top of the 2026 ‘Biggest improvement vs qualifying’ ranking, with Liam Lawson taking over as the new leader on +5.33 for RB F1 Team. That is a decisive-looking number in a ranking designed to reward Sunday execution rather than Saturday speed: it measures the mean of qualifying position minus classified race finish across races where a driver has both results, and it is explicitly unaffected by grid penalties because it uses qualifying position rather than the starting grid.
Lawson’s Monaco weekend underlined why he now sets the pace. He qualified 10th and finished 6th, scoring 8 points over 78 laps — a clear positive swing from his Saturday position, and the kind of result that accumulates quickly in an average-based metric. Crucially, the lead change is confirmed: Lewis Hamilton was the previous leader, but after round 6 Lawson is P1 and Hamilton has been displaced.
Even with Lawson out front, the next positions are tightly packed and tell a different story: Oscar Piastri sits second on +2.33 for McLaren, and Pierre Gasly is third on the same +2.33 for Alpine F1 Team. That tie matters because the ranking’s tiebreak is season points and then alphabetically, so equal averages don’t guarantee equal standing — a reminder that small swings in any single classified race can re-order drivers who are effectively level on the core metric.
Further down the top 10, Alpine’s secondary thread is quietly notable: Franco Colapinto is ninth on 0.00, the definition of a neutral profile in this measure — neither consistently gaining nor losing positions from qualifying to the flag. By contrast, Isack Hadjar holds 10th for Red Bull on −0.67, showing that simply staying inside the top 10 of this ranking can come with a negative average when the field is volatile and the threshold filters out drivers with fewer than 3 classified races.
The biggest visible consequence of Monaco in the ranking is the churn among established names, led by George Russell’s exit from the top 10. Russell fell five places from sixth to 11th, now sitting on −1.40 for Mercedes — the largest movement magnitude recorded in this update. His Monaco result illustrates the swing that can drive that kind of change: he qualified sixth and finished 12th, classified after 78 laps and scoring 0 points. In a metric built on qualifying position minus race classification, that’s exactly the wrong direction, and it leaves him outside the top 10 entrants list at a time when the midfield of the ranking is clearly compressing.
Mercedes also has a second drop to manage: Andrea Kimi Antonelli fell four positions from fourth to eighth, though his value is still marginally positive at +0.17. That combination — a slide in rank despite a plus figure — captures the competitive squeeze behind Lawson, where small differences in average are enough to shift places. And Hamilton’s fall is the headline alongside the lead change: down three positions from first to fourth for Ferrari, on +1.17. He’s still a net gainer across the season by this measure, but Monaco has turned a once-clear advantage into a chase, and it sets up a more fragile margin to the +2.33 pair ahead than his previous P1 suggested.
| Driver | Team | Before | After | Δ | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| George Russell | Mercedes | 6 | 11 | -5 | −1.40 |
| Andrea Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | 4 | 8 | -4 | +0.17 |
| Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | 1 | 4 | -3 | +1.17 |
Lawson’s +5.33 gives him real breathing room at the top of a ranking where one strong gain can move the needle, while Piastri and Gasly being locked together on +2.33 keeps the next places sensitive to small changes. The bigger implication of Monaco is the reshaped chasing group: Hamilton is now a pursuer rather than the benchmark, and Mercedes faces opposite pressures with Antonelli still barely positive at +0.17 as Russell slips to −1.40 and out of the top 10.