After three races, the ‘Most top-10 finishes’ table has a three-way perfect run at the top — but Suzuka produced a major mover further down. Oscar Piastri’s return to the top 10 vaulted him 11 places, while a retirement for Oliver Bearman proved costly in a ranking that only rewards classified top-10 results.
By Camille Fontaine
Andrea Kimi Antonelli remains the reference point for consistency in 2026’s ‘Most top-10 finishes’ ranking, leaving Suzuka with a perfect 3 from 3. His Japanese Grand Prix win from pole — 25 points for a finished, P1 result across 53 laps — keeps him at the head of a table that prioritises being classified and finishing 10th or better, and excludes retirements entirely.
The headline at the very top is stability rather than upheaval: the top three is unchanged, with George Russell second and Charles Leclerc third, both also on 3 top-10 finishes. That creates an early-season dynamic where the lead can’t be created via mere survival — because the front-runners are all surviving — and instead will eventually hinge on who first breaks that streak of always bringing home a top-10 result.
Oscar Piastri delivered the biggest single shift of the season so far in this metric, jumping 11 places from 20th to ninth after finishing second at Suzuka. Because this ranking is a straight count of classified top-10 results, that P2 instantly put his personal tally at 1 — enough to bring him into the top 10 of the standings and underline just how compressed the midfield end of this table still is after only three rounds.
What makes the move striking is that it’s driven by one clean, high-value finish rather than a gradual climb: Piastri started third and ended second, scoring 18 points, and that single top-10 finish carries disproportionate weight this early. In a ranking designed to capture reliability and repeatability, Suzuka was a reminder that one ‘banked’ result can reset the narrative for anyone who had been stuck on the outside looking in.
The ranking’s methodology is unforgiving on non-finishes, and Suzuka’s clearest casualty was Oliver Bearman. He arrived in the top group but a retirement — classified as ‘Retired’ after 20 laps from an 18th-place start — leaves him on 1 top-10 finish and drops him five places from fifth to 10th. In this table, that ‘R’ doesn’t merely halt momentum; it wipes out any chance to add to the count, which is exactly why Bearman slides while others climb with a single classified top-10.
Piastri’s move also had a direct knock-on effect at the edge of the top 10: he becomes the new entrant at ninth, while Isack Hadjar is the name that drops out. With Antonelli, Russell and Leclerc all still perfect at 3, the more volatile battle is behind them — where one retirement or one clean top-10 can swing multiple positions, as Bearman and Piastri illustrated from opposite directions.
Two teams encapsulate the ranking’s early-season split personality: the top is locked down, but the chasing pack is all movement. At Haas, Esteban Ocon climbs four places from 16th to 12th on 1 top-10 finish — a modest number, but one that becomes meaningful when so many drivers are still fighting to register their first counted result. Bearman, by contrast, moves in the other direction despite holding the same total (1), showing how quickly the table can reorder when tie-breaks and points come into play.
At McLaren, Piastri’s 11-place surge to ninth on 1 top-10 finish contrasts with Lando Norris’s quieter rise from sixth to fifth on 2. That gap in counted finishes — 2 versus 1 — is exactly what this metric is designed to spotlight: not a single standout Sunday, but the ability to repeatedly convert weekends into classified top-10 results. Suzuka boosted Piastri’s trajectory, but Norris’s 2 suggests a steadier accumulation so far.
| Driver | Team | Before | After | Δ | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 20 | 9 | +11 | 1 |
| Oliver Bearman | Haas F1 Team | 5 | 10 | -5 | 1 |
| Esteban Ocon | Haas F1 Team | 16 | 12 | +4 | 1 |
With Antonelli, Russell and Leclerc all on 3 top-10 finishes after three races, the lead is currently protected by perfection rather than points gaps. The action is behind them: one classified top-10, as Piastri showed, can drag a driver into the top 10 instantly — while a single retirement, like Bearman’s, can undo weeks of steady positioning.