A humdinger of a Canadian Grand Prix saw Red Bull’s Max Verstappen extend his lead at the top of the standings after overcoming the wet-dry craziness at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. But which drivers impressed our judges most last weekend? The results are in…
How it works
Our five-judge panel assess each driver after every Grand Prix and score them out of 10 according to their performance across the weekend – taking machinery out of the equation
Our experts’ scores are then averaged out to produce a race score – with those scores then tallied up across the season on our overall Power Rankings Leaderboard (at the bottom of the page)
All that chaos in Montreal… and still Verstappen finds a way through to win. This, though, was more like a Verstappen win of yore, the Dutchman using all of his skill to haul a car that was far from being the indomitable class of the field (as it was at the start of the season) into contention – on a weekend where team mate Sergio Perez endured his second straight Q1 exit and DNF.
READ MORE: Verstappen hails team for staying calm in ‘crazy race’ as he takes victory in eventful Canadian GP
Lando Norris remains the only driver to have scored in every Grand Prix of 2024 so far, the Englishman revelling in showing up every weekend knowing that, if both he and McLaren execute, he has a shout at netting a podium – and perhaps even that big step in the middle. It’s making for exciting times for F1 fans.
READ MORE: Norris ‘won’t complain’ about Safety Car as he takes positives from ‘amazing pace’ en route to P2 in Canada
George Russell’s stunning pole position – Mercedes’ first since Hungary in 2023, and Russell’s first since the same race the year before – will have been like soothing balm to Mercedes’ collective soul after a difficult start to the year. It looks like their new front wing is working, and while Russell was sore at not having used it to claim victory, it will have whet his appetite for more success in the coming races.
TECH WEEKLY: Has Mercedes’ new front wing finally made them a contender again?
That Oscar Piastri was the second-best McLaren driver over the Canada weekend is no slight, given how well Norris is driving currently. Piastri, like many, felt that he had a shot of pole on Saturday. Race day saw him lacking the scintillating pace of Norris – an area McLaren continue to work on with the Australian – but he was crucially there at the end to take P5, helping McLaren score the joint-most points of any team from the weekend (28, the same as Mercedes).
F1 NATION: Verstappen weathers the storm in Montreal – it’s our Canadian GP Review
Points, meanwhile, have been as rare as hens' teeth for Alpine in 2024. But there's progress, the team netting their first double-score of 2024 in a result headed by the P9 of Pierre Gasly – meaning they've now scored in three of the last four weekends.
WATCH: Gasly on Alpine’s double points haul: ‘None of our simulations showed this was possible’
In a week where 1997 champion Jacques Villeneuve questioned why Ricciardo was still in F1 – and in which the Australian watched Red Bull and VCARB offer contract extensions to Sergio Perez and Yuki Tsunoda – Ricciardo pulled himself together to show sparkling form in qualifying, taking P5 on the grid. And while race day was harder, he still netted his first Grand Prix points of the year (along with his five Sprint points in Miami) with P8, a result he admitted he "needed".
READ MORE: Ricciardo admits relief at ‘needed’ points finish in Canada as he explains jump start drama
Besides taking P1 in the largely meaningless Free Practice 2 running, this was a weekend where Alonso once again had to watch on as Red Bull, Mercedes and McLaren carved up the spoils at the front of the field. A podium still looks a way off for Aston Martin – but Alonso’s ability to consistently wrestle results out of his car remains impressive.
READ MORE: Alonso brands Canadian GP ‘a fantastic race’ for Aston Martin after double points haul
James Vowles has been calling Alex Albon a championship-level driver for a while now, and Albon proved once again in Montreal while he’s so highly rated by his erudite team boss. Q3 for the second time in a row was a great achievement, while Albon was sure that points were on the cards until he was unluckily wiped out by Carlos Sainz’s spinning Ferrari mid-race.
READ MORE: ‘Passenger’ Albon left frustrated by Sainz crash on day points were possible, as Sargeant rues ‘too many mistakes’
Fresh from the news that he would be heading to pastures new in 2025, Ocon cut a disgruntled at the end of race day, having been asked to cede position to team mate Gasly. That was doubly gutting after the Frenchman had climbed from his penalised P18 grid spot to as high as P8 – but at least he helped Alpine claim a valuable extra point, lifting them above Williams to eighth in the constructors’ standings.
READ MORE: Ocon unhappy with Alpine team orders in Canada as he loses out to Gasly
If you’d had to pick a driver after Montreal’s three opening practice sessions who looked set to spring a surprise, you’d probably have picked Lewis Hamilton. The seven-time Montreal winner looked like a driver re-born on Friday and Saturday morning. Thereafter, though, life got harder, as he claimed only P7 in qualifying as Russell took pole, before taking P4 in the race – a performance he termed as one of his worst-executed Grands Prix ever.
THE STRATEGIST: How Norris, Russell or even Hamilton could have won in Montreal
MISSING OUT
Lance Stroll also took a 6.8 score this week after finishing P7 in his home race in Montreal. But as per our Power Rankings protocol (try saying that after a few maple syrups!) he misses out by dint of having finished behind Hamilton.
