Charles Leclerc’s Austrian Grand Prix went backwards on track and forwards in an unwanted metric, jumping three places to second in the 2026 ‘Most positions lost’ ranking. George Russell still leads after eight rounds, even as others shuffled behind him.
By Julian Reyes
The biggest change after the Austrian Grand Prix was Charles Leclerc’s surge up the ‘Most positions lost’ order, driven by a race that moved sharply in the wrong direction. Starting second at the Red Bull Ring and finishing eighth over 71 laps, Leclerc shed six places on the day — a swing that lifts him from fifth to second in the season ranking with a cumulative −5, the largest rank gain of round 8 (movement +3) and a reminder that one messy Sunday can reshape this table quickly.
At the top, George Russell’s position looks increasingly entrenched even without a headline shift this weekend. He remains the ranking leader on −8, and unlike those around him he didn’t add to his ‘losses’ in Spielberg: pole to victory (grid 1 to P1) kept his net movement at zero for the race, which matters in a metric that simply sums grid-to-flag drift across every classified start from a proper grid slot.
The more intriguing subplot sits in the churn just behind Leclerc. Isack Hadjar slipped from second to third despite sitting at 0 overall, while Andrea Kimi Antonelli moved the other way in the ranking — dropping from fourth to sixth (movement −2) with +2 displayed — even though his Austrian result was a straight gain from grid 4 to finish P3. Further down, Oscar Piastri’s slide from 16th to 18th (movement −2) with +12 displayed underlines how volatile the lower order can be, with small movements in rank masking bigger season totals.
| Driver | Team | Before | After | Δ | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 5 | 2 | +3 | −5 |
| Andrea Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | 4 | 6 | -2 | +2 |
| Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 16 | 18 | -2 | +12 |
Russell’s −8 lead survives a round where he didn’t add any net losses, while Leclerc’s jump to −5 puts him closer to the front of this ranking than he was a week ago. With Hadjar sitting on 0 and Antonelli/Piastri moving backwards in rank, the fight behind the leader is tightening — and a single grid-to-flag swing like Leclerc’s can reorder the chasing pack.