The Miami Grand Prix flips the top of the 2026 ‘Most overtakes’ table: Max Verstappen moves ahead on 35, pushing previous leader Nico Hülkenberg down to third. George Russell’s jump to second tightens the fight at the front after four rounds.
By Diego Torres
The ‘Most overtakes’ lead has changed hands after the Miami Grand Prix, and the new name at the top is Max Verstappen. His season total now sits at 35, enough to make him the ranking’s new leader at round 4 and end Nico Hülkenberg’s spell at number one.
That shift is made more interesting by what Verstappen’s Miami weekend looked like on the results sheet: he started 2nd, finished 5th, completed 57 laps, and scored 10 points. The overtake ranking doesn’t track points or finishing positions directly, but a weekend like that can still be a reminder of why this metric has value: it captures how often a driver is actually changing places on track (and, where applicable, converting pit-stint timing into a lasting position), rather than simply where they start and finish.
Miami also reshaped the top three. George Russell has surged to 2nd on 26 overtakes for Mercedes, while Hülkenberg has dropped to 3rd on 24 for Audi. In other words, the top three is now Verstappen (35), Russell (26), Hülkenberg (24) — and the gaps tell their own story: Russell is nine back from the lead, but only two ahead of Hülkenberg.
Hülkenberg’s fall from 1st to 3rd is the headline beneath the headline. His total of 24 still keeps him firmly in the fight, but losing two positions in the ranking in just one round shows how quickly this table can swing when others are adding overtakes at a faster clip. Russell’s rise, meanwhile, signals a different kind of momentum: he’s not just edging forward, he’s moved into direct striking distance of the driver ahead of him.
The biggest upward mover is Oscar Piastri. The McLaren driver climbs five places, from 19th to 14th, with 11 overtakes. That’s the largest change in either direction in this update, and it stands out because it suggests a sharp shift in the kind of races he’s been having: less about staying put, more about finding ways through traffic and banking position changes that count under the ranking’s rules.
Russell’s three-place jump — from 5th to 2nd — is the most consequential move near the front, because it changes the shape of the lead battle rather than just the middle of the table. Gabriel Bortoleto also gains three places (14th to 11th) on 16 overtakes for Audi, a useful datapoint for how competitive the fight for the lower edge of the order can be in pure passing terms, even though the spotlight this week is on the re-ordered top three.
Esteban Ocon is the sharpest faller in this update, dropping four places from 6th to 10th despite holding 17 overtakes for Haas F1 Team. His Miami Grand Prix result underlines how the ranking can punish a quiet weekend in passing terms: he started 14th, finished 13th, completed 56 laps, and scored 0 points, classified as Lapped. Even with a respectable season total, others moving faster can knock a driver out of the top 10 quickly.
Liam Lawson also slips, down three places from 3rd to 6th on 19 overtakes. Put together with Hülkenberg’s drop and Ocon’s slide, it shows why this is one of the most fluid season-long leaderboards: overtakes arrive in clusters, and a single round can reshuffle not only the leader but the entire chasing pack.
| Driver | Team | Before | After | Δ | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 19 | 14 | +5 | 11 |
| Esteban Ocon | Haas F1 Team | 6 | 10 | -4 | 17 |
| George Russell | Mercedes | 5 | 2 | +3 | 26 |
With Verstappen now leading ‘Most overtakes’ on 35, the immediate pressure point is behind him: Russell’s rise to 26 brings him within nine, while Hülkenberg on 24 is close enough to punish any lull. The mid-table remains highly sensitive to one-round swings, as Piastri’s +5 and Ocon’s -4 show.