Miami flips the top of the 2026 Most overtakes ranking: Max Verstappen moves ahead on 35, with George Russell closing fast on 26 and Nico Hülkenberg dropping to third on 24.
By Julian Reyes
The Miami Grand Prix has rewritten the headline of 2026’s Most overtakes table: Max Verstappen is the new leader on 35, a change at the top after Nico Hülkenberg’s early-season hold on P1. Verstappen’s Miami weekend underlined why this ranking can look very different to points: he finished fifth from second on the grid, yet still emerged from round 4 with the overtake lead and 10 points added to his season total.
The immediate shape of the battle is tight enough to matter: Verstappen’s 35 puts him nine clear of George Russell on 26, but only 11 ahead of Hülkenberg on 24. With just 4 races completed, that spread is not insurmountable in either direction — and Miami’s ranking shake-up shows how quickly a single weekend can reorder this particular metric.
Russell is the big climber at the sharp end: up three places from fifth to second, now sitting on 26 overtakes for Mercedes. That matters because it doesn’t just improve his position — it changes his proximity to the lead and his buffer to the pack, transforming him from an outsider into Verstappen’s most direct statistical threat in this category.
Miami also reinforces an important nuance of the methodology: these are “genuine on-track overtakes” derived from the lap-by-lap chart, with pit-stop shuffles stripped out unless a strategic gain actually sticks to the finish. In other words, Russell’s rise isn’t about being credited for traffic created by stops; it’s rooted in lasting position gains, the kind that translate into finishing order rather than momentary swaps.
Hülkenberg’s slide is the other side of Miami’s top-three churn. Last week’s leader is now third, down two places with 24 overtakes for Audi. It’s not a collapse — he remains within 11 of Verstappen — but it is a reminder that early-season leadership in this ranking is fragile when the margins are measured in single weekends rather than long-run trends.
The new top three also highlights the competitive pressure points: Russell is only two behind Hülkenberg, so second is immediately contestable, while Verstappen’s nine-overtake cushion over Russell is big enough to be meaningful but not big enough to be safe with so much season still left.
Oscar Piastri produced the biggest swing of any key mover, leaping five spots from 19th to 14th on 11 overtakes for McLaren. His Miami result — third from seventh on the grid, 15 points scored, and 57 laps completed — reads like the kind of day that can accelerate this metric quickly, because it’s built on sustained position changes rather than headline moments.
At the other end, Esteban Ocon’s week was a quiet but consequential retreat: down four places from sixth to 10th on 17 overtakes for Haas F1 Team. His Miami race ended 13th after starting 14th, and he was classified lapped after 56 laps — not the profile that tends to keep a driver anchored near the front of an overtake count when others are building momentum.
One more subplot sits just outside the key-mover trio: Liam Lawson slipped three places from third to sixth on 19, another signal that the mid-table of this ranking is volatile. With no top-10 entries or exits recorded this week, the story is less about fresh names breaking in and more about internal reshuffling among drivers already in the mix.
| Driver | Team | Before | After | Δ | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 19 | 14 | +5 | 11 |
| Esteban Ocon | Haas F1 Team | 6 | 10 | -4 | 17 |
| George Russell | Mercedes | 5 | 2 | +3 | 26 |
Verstappen’s move to 35 gives him the Most overtakes lead, but Russell’s rise to 26 keeps the gap within striking range, while Hülkenberg on 24 is close enough that second place could change quickly over the next rounds.