Thirteen races into 2026, Esteban Ocon’s average gain from qualifying to classified race finish remains the benchmark, even after a rough Italian Grand Prix. The bigger movement came behind him: Pierre Gasly slid four places in the table, while Isack Hadjar climbed into the top 10 and Oscar Piastri fell out.
By Diego Torres
Esteban Ocon remains the leader of the 2026 “Biggest improvement vs qualifying” ranking after round 13 at Monza, holding a season average of +3.75 positions gained from qualifying to classified race result. The headline, though, is how he kept that advantage despite Monza being the kind of weekend that can quickly erode a driver’s margin in this metric.
Ocon was classified 16th in the Italian Grand Prix after qualifying 16th, a zero-swing outcome for this ranking at a moment when consolidation mattered. That steadiness is key because the top of the table is compact: Sergio Pérez sits second at +3.67 and Alexander Albon third at +3.33. With gaps measured in tenths of a position, a single unproductive weekend can be the difference between leading and being swallowed by the pack — yet Ocon leaves Monza still the reference point.
Pierre Gasly produced the sharpest drop among the key movers, sliding four places from 12th to 16th, with his season average now exactly 0.00. Monza underlined how unforgiving this metric is for drivers whose earlier gains have been thin: a run of races without improving on qualifying can flatten the number completely, and that is precisely where Gasly now sits.
The contrast within the same weekend is stark. Gasly qualified 1st and finished 7th, which is a negative swing in the underlying calculation that this ranking tracks, and it helps explain why his position in the table moved so abruptly. It also adds a layer of context to Monza’s broader story: pole did not convert into victory, a reminder that qualifying pace and race outcome can diverge sharply — and this ranking exists to measure who consistently beats that divergence in their favour.
Isack Hadjar is the round’s clearest upward story, climbing three places from 13th to 10th to enter the top 10 on +1.00. That is not a headline number compared to the +3.75 at the top, but it matters because the top-10 cut line is where this ranking shifts from “interesting trend” to “season narrative”: it is the group of drivers who, on average, are turning Saturdays into materially better Sundays.
That top-10 change came with a notable exit: Oscar Piastri dropped three places from 10th to 13th, sitting on +0.89. It’s a small numerical separation from Hadjar, but a meaningful standings swing, and it illustrates how tightly packed the midfield of this table is — a few tenths of average improvement can be the difference between visibility and being buried outside the first page.
Elsewhere, Max Verstappen gained two places (8th to 6th) with a +1.63 value, and Nico Hülkenberg rose two spots (14th to 12th) on +1.00. The common thread is that incremental gains are being rewarded now that the season has reached 13 completed races: the averages are stabilising, and it takes real movement — not noise — to climb.
The story at the top is less about churn and more about pressure. Ocon’s lead is intact, but Pérez at +3.67 and Albon at +3.33 remain close enough that a single weekend of strong overperformance — or another flat weekend like Ocon’s 16th-from-16th — can tighten the fight further without any change in outright qualifying speed.
For the movers, the stakes are clearer. Gasly’s fall to 16th and 0.00 turns him into a driver who must start banking net gains again simply to re-enter the conversation, while Hadjar’s arrival in 10th gives him a platform: holding that position is now about repeating small, consistent Sunday improvements rather than chasing one big outlier result.
| Driver | Team | Before | After | Δ | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pierre Gasly | Alpine F1 Team | 12 | 16 | -4 | 0.00 |
| Isack Hadjar | Red Bull | 13 | 10 | +3 | +1.00 |
| Oliver Bearman | Haas F1 Team | 5 | 8 | -3 | +1.50 |
Ocon’s +3.75 still sets the pace in average improvement versus qualifying, but Pérez (+3.67) and Albon (+3.33) are close enough that the lead is more “defended” than “settled.” The bigger inflection points are lower down: Hadjar’s jump into 10th changes the top-10 cutoff, while Gasly’s fall to 16th and 0.00 shows how quickly this metric can punish weekends where Sunday doesn’t beat Saturday.