After three races in 2026, the ‘Most positions gained’ table remains headed by Max Verstappen on +17 — boosted by a Suzuka climb from 11th to 8th. The Japanese Grand Prix also produced the biggest swing of the ranking so far, with Isack Hadjar tumbling out of the top 10 after losing ground on Sunday.
By Nadia Okafor
Max Verstappen remains the benchmark in 2026’s Most positions gained ranking after Suzuka, holding P1 on +17 with no change at the top. That stability matters in a metric built on volatility: one big recovery can rewrite the standings, but so can one weekend where you go backwards from your grid slot.
At the Japanese Grand Prix, Verstappen added to his cushion the hard way: starting 11th and finishing 8th over 53 laps to bank a net +3 for the race. It wasn’t a headline-grabbing leap in isolation, but it is exactly the kind of incremental score that turns this table into a season-long story rather than a highlight reel — especially when the next-biggest movement in the standings went the opposite direction.
The race’s most consequential effect on the ranking was at the cut line. Four names dropped out of the top 10 after Japan: Pierre Gasly, Isack Hadjar, Andrea Kimi Antonelli and George Russell. Four others moved in, including three drivers now tied on +2 inside the top 10: Esteban Ocon (P6), Nico Hülkenberg (P7) and Sergio Pérez (P8). Oscar Piastri also edged into the top 10 at P10 on +1.
That churn is a reminder that, through three races, it’s not taking much to be relevant in this metric once you’re outside the very top. Oliver Bearman sits third overall on +5, but by the time you reach the lower half of the top 10 you’re talking about single-digit swings across an entire season so far — a small gain here or a small loss there is enough to flip who is “in form” on this specific measure of recovery.
Up front, there was no such volatility: Verstappen stayed first, Liam Lawson stayed second on +12, and Bearman held third on +5. With the top three unchanged after Suzuka, the real action shifted to the battle for top-10 relevance — and to the drivers who paid the price for going backwards from their grid positions.
Isack Hadjar suffered the biggest standings hit of the weekend, sliding from P8 to P16 in the Most positions gained ranking after losing places in the race itself: he started 8th and finished 12th, a net -4 on Sunday. That single result leaves him on -3 for the season and explains the scale of his movement: an eight-place drop in the table is massive this early, when three races still define the entire dataset.
George Russell’s drop was less dramatic but still costly. He fell five places in the ranking from P10 to P15 and now sits on -2. In a table that rewards recovery, being on the wrong side of zero after three rounds is a serious handicap — not because it can’t be corrected, but because the leaders are already stacking meaningful totals.
Gasly’s case underlines how tight the mid-pack fight is. He dropped from P7 to P11 (down four positions in the ranking) despite still showing +1 as his season total. That combination — a positive tally but a sharp slide in rank — tells you how many drivers are clustered together around small numbers after Suzuka, and how quickly the standings can reshuffle when others add even modest gains.
Three rounds in, the story splits cleanly into two tiers: Verstappen’s +17 is already a sizeable reference point, while Lawson’s +12 and Bearman’s +5 form a second line that can still be attacked with one strong recovery weekend. Behind them, the threshold for the top 10 is currently just +1, which is why the entry/exit list is as revealing as the podium positions.
The biggest single movement magnitude so far is eight places in the ranking, and Suzuka delivered it via a straightforward grid-to-flag swing: Hadjar went from an 8th-place start to 12th at the finish. With classifications and proper grid starts defining what counts here, the early-season message is simple: consistent small recoveries — like Verstappen’s 11th to 8th — can be as valuable as occasional hero days, because they protect you from the kind of negative score that can eject you from the top 10 in one hit.
| Driver | Team | Before | After | Δ | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Isack Hadjar | Red Bull | 8 | 16 | -8 | -3 |
| George Russell | Mercedes | 10 | 15 | -5 | -2 |
| Pierre Gasly | Alpine F1 Team | 7 | 11 | -4 | +1 |
With the top three unchanged — Verstappen +17, Lawson +12, Bearman +5 — the immediate pressure shifts to the churn behind them: just +1 is enough for the current top 10, so one clean recovery race can lift a driver several places, while a single negative Sunday like Hadjar’s can undo weeks of progress.