Oscar Piastri is the Austrian GP’s biggest winner in the composite Power ranking, climbing from fifth to third on 58.1. Max Verstappen remains P1 on 72.4, but the battle immediately behind him is moving quickly.
By Diego Torres
Oscar Piastri delivered the ranking’s sharpest swing after Spielberg, rising two places from fifth to third with a 58.1 composite score. That move matters because it reshapes the podium positions in a system weighted heavily toward teammate head-to-head and grid-to-finish progress, and Piastri’s Austrian weekend had both: seventh on the grid, fourth at the flag, and 12 points scored over 71 laps.
At the front, the headline is stability rather than churn: Max Verstappen keeps the Power ranking lead with 72.4, and the gap to second-placed Liam Lawson remains a defined target rather than a collapsing one, with Lawson on 70.4. But the fact the top three changed despite no change at the top underlines how volatile the supporting cast has become by round 8 — the margins are now being set by incremental weekends, not a single defining outlier.
The other key shift is a Mercedes internal reshuffle. Andrea Kimi Antonelli drops from third to fifth despite finishing third in Austria from fourth on the grid, banking 15 points, showing how this composite can punish relative loss of momentum even when the raw result is strong. George Russell, meanwhile, moves the other way, up one place from ninth to eighth on 36.0, nudging himself into closer contention with the midfield of the ranking.
The top-10 boundary moved too: Isack Hadjar becomes the new P10 entrant on 22.1, while Franco Colapinto exits after slipping from 10th to 11th on 17.8. With only eight races completed, that kind of turnover at the cutoff line is a reminder that the Power ranking’s consistency-and-classification component can make the lower half especially sensitive to small changes round-to-round.
| Driver | Team | Before | After | Δ | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 5 | 3 | +2 | 58.1 |
| Andrea Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | 3 | 5 | -2 | 57.1 |
| George Russell | Mercedes | 9 | 8 | +1 | 36.0 |
Verstappen’s 72.4 lead remains intact over Lawson’s 70.4, but Piastri’s move to 58.1 changes the shape of the chase group. With the top three already shifting at round 8, the next scores are likely to be decided by marginal gains in teammate head-to-head and grid-to-finish efficiency rather than headline results alone.