The British Grand Prix flipped the top of the ‘Most positions gained on lap one’ ranking: Carlos Sainz is the new listed leader, even though the top three are locked together on +24. Behind them, Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto both broke into the top 10 on +11 as Alexander Albon slid out.
By Julian Reyes
Carlos Sainz is the new leader of 2026’s ‘Most positions gained on lap one’ ranking after round 9 at Silverstone, replacing Fernando Alonso at the top. The headline number is that the front of this table is now a deadlock: Sainz (Williams), Esteban Ocon (Haas F1 Team) and Alonso (Aston Martin) are all shown on +24 cumulative places gained on lap one.
That makes the ‘leader change’ signal as much about ordering as it is about advantage. With three drivers sitting on the same +24, the practical reality is that any small swing in the remaining races — a single strong launch from a proper grid slot, with lap-1 timing recorded — could reshuffle the top again. The stakes are subtle but real: in a metric that rewards immediate recovery from grid position, the margin at the front is currently zero.
The most revealing sub-plot is that Alonso’s name moved the wrong way even while he remains tied for the best total. He drops from rank 1 to rank 3 on +24, a reminder that this ranking is not about a single Sunday but the sum of every counted race where lap-1 data exists — and that tie-breaks can bite when the totals converge.
Sainz’s rise to being the listed leader lands in a weekend where his overall race result was modest: he started 14th and finished 17th, lapped, with 0 points after 51 laps. That contrast is exactly what this ranking captures when it’s at its most interesting: it isolates what happens by the end of lap 1, even when the final classification later drifts the other way.
Silverstone also tightened the battle around the lower edge of the top 10. Pierre Gasly (Alpine) and Franco Colapinto (Alpine) are new entrants at ranks 9 and 10 respectively, both sitting on +11 for the season. Gasly’s jump is especially clear in the movement: 11th to 9th (+2), while Colapinto goes 12th to 10th (+2).
Those climbs came at the expense of Alexander Albon and Valtteri Bottas, who are listed as the two top-10 exits after the British Grand Prix. For Albon, it’s a stark reversal: he drops from rank 9 to rank 14, the biggest movement magnitude in the update at -5, and his season total in this metric is now +3.
Albon’s Silverstone weekend underlines how quickly this kind of ranking can turn against a driver. He qualified 16th and started 16th, but was classified 21st as Retired, with 0 points after 43 laps. The ranking itself isn’t built from the finish — it’s grid versus lap-1 position — yet when a driver is having difficult Sundays, the opportunities to bank meaningful lap-one gains can evaporate, and the table position follows.
Gasly’s weekend reads like the opposite kind of story: he started 15th and finished 10th, scoring 1 point after 52 laps. That’s a five-place improvement from grid to finish, and while this ranking is narrower than that, it fits the same theme: digging out track position early and then giving the race a platform. With Colapinto matching Gasly’s +11 season total and Liam Lawson also moving up (13th to 11th on +9), the mid-table for lap-one gains is compressing — and the top, remarkably, is already compressed to a three-way tie.
| Driver | Team | Before | After | Δ | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alexander Albon | Williams | 9 | 14 | -5 | +3 |
| Pierre Gasly | Alpine F1 Team | 11 | 9 | +2 | +11 |
| Franco Colapinto | Alpine F1 Team | 12 | 10 | +2 | +11 |
With Sainz, Ocon and Alonso tied on +24, the ‘Most positions gained on lap one’ lead has no cushion: one clean, data-counted opening lap from a proper grid slot can flip the order again. The more immediate fight is around the top-10 cut line, where Gasly and Colapinto’s move to +11 has pushed Albon out and tightened the pack behind the tied leaders.