Seven rounds into 2026, Max Verstappen remains the season’s biggest net mover from grid to finish, even on a weekend where his own gain was just one place. The Barcelona Grand Prix reshuffled the chasing pack as Oscar Piastri rose to fifth overall and Alexander Albon dropped back.
By Camille Fontaine
Max Verstappen still leads the 2026 Most positions gained table after round 7 at Barcelona, sitting on a season net of +18 for Red Bull. The headline is not a change at the top — the leader didn’t change and even the top three is static — but the way Verstappen keeps consolidating the metric without needing a huge Sunday every time.
In Spain, Verstappen started fifth and finished fourth, a clean +1 that added to a tally already strong enough to keep him clear at the summit. That matters because this ranking is cumulative: small gains still carry weight when they come alongside consistent classification, and round 7 extended the season story rather than flipping it.
While Verstappen stays first on +18, the numbers show a proper scrap behind. Liam Lawson remains second for RB F1 Team on +16 — just two places back on the season total — and Fernando Alonso holds third for Aston Martin on +11, keeping the podium positions unchanged after Barcelona.
The gaps frame the stakes for the next phase of the season. Verstappen’s advantage over Lawson is small in the context of a metric that can swing quickly if a driver strings together a couple of strong recoveries from deeper grid slots. Equally, Alonso’s +11 is close enough to the lead group that one standout gain could pull him toward that +16/+18 bracket.
The biggest mover in the table after the Barcelona Grand Prix was Oscar Piastri, who jumped two spots in the season ranking from seventh to fifth. His season net is now +9, and Barcelona offered another incremental step: he started seventh and finished fifth for McLaren, banking +2 and 10 points in the process.
Lando Norris also moved upward, albeit by just one position — from 13th to 12th — as he reached +4 on the season for McLaren. In a ranking built on accumulation, that kind of gradual climb can be meaningful: it is less about one blockbuster comeback and more about preventing lost Sundays from erasing the gains.
The most notable drop belonged to Alexander Albon, who fell two places in the season ranking from fifth to seventh despite still showing a positive season net of +8 for Williams. Barcelona was a weekend that did nothing to protect his buffer: he started 18th, was classified 18th with status listed as Lapped, and therefore recorded no positions gained in the race itself.
That’s the hidden edge of this metric. A driver can build a healthy season number, but flatlining on a round where nearby rivals add even small positives is enough to lose ranking places. Albon’s drop, paired with Piastri’s rise, is a reminder that consistency matters as much as the occasional big recovery, especially with the top three not moving and the squeeze happening just behind them.
| Driver | Team | Before | After | Δ | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 7 | 5 | +2 | +9 |
| Alexander Albon | Williams | 5 | 7 | -2 | +8 |
| Lando Norris | McLaren | 13 | 12 | +1 | +4 |
With Verstappen still leading on +18 and Lawson close on +16, the top of Most positions gained is stable but not comfortable. The shifts are happening just behind: Piastri’s move to fifth on +9 and Albon’s slide to seventh with +8 show how quickly the order can change when one driver adds small positives and another posts a neutral round.