POWER RANKINGS: Who impressed our judges at the Chinese Grand Prix?

Mercedes’ command over the field continued in China at the hands of Kimi Antonelli, who clinched both his maiden pole position and Grand Prix victory in emotional scenes. But who else made the top 10 of our Power Rankings? Check out the latest scores and updated leaderboard below…

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)

Amid the joy of Antonelli’s maiden victory, it might have been easy to overlook what was an incredible performance for Ollie Bearman, who improved from P8 in the Sprint to achieve the second top-five finish of his career in the Grand Prix. It was far from straightforward, however, as he was nearly taken out of the race by the spinning Red Bull of Isack Hadjar on the opening lap. Swerving onto the run-off area, the Briton stayed out of trouble for the remainder and brought it home in P5 – Haas’ best result of the season so far – to extend his points-scoring streak.

It was a history-making weekend for the Mercedes youngster as he became the sport's second youngest Grand Prix winner, beating team mate George Russell to the chequered flag. After dropping back to fifth place in the Sprint due to a time penalty, Antonelli reset to start from pole position for the first time. Lewis Hamilton got the better of him at lights out but his lead didn’t last long as the Italian driver moved back into first within a couple of laps. From there, he controlled the race with a maturity far beyond his years – albeit with a nailbiting lock-up in the final laps – and sailed to victory.

The downbeat Hamilton of 2025 is but a distant memory as he achieved his first Grand Prix podium finish with Ferrari, one year on from his win in the Sprint at the same circuit. A fantastic launch saw him momentarily lead the race before dropping behind both Silver Arrows cars, leaving him to engage in a thrilling battle with team mate Charles Leclerc. The pair later shared their enjoyment of the fight, but it was Hamilton who came out on top to match his P3 result from the Sprint.

Pierre Gasly firmly dragged Alpine into the contest for ‘best of the rest’ with a superb drive at the Shanghai International Circuit, starting by securing P7 in Sprint Qualifying. Although he dropped outside the points in the subsequent Sprint, the Frenchman bounced back to take P7 once again, this time in Qualifying for the main event. Keeping it clean, he crossed the line in sixth place to score for the second consecutive weekend.

It may not have been as dominant a round as the season opener in Australia, but Russell nevertheless put on another strong performance in China. He reclaimed the lead of the Sprint from Hamilton and comfortably won that before suffering a late issue in Qualifying – stopping on track at the start of Q3, but returning to action just in time to set a single flying lap under immense pressure to earn a spot on the front row. Despite being made to pass the quarrelling Ferrari pair, he fought back to maintain P2 and the lead of the Drivers’ Championship.

Franco Colapinto netted his first top-10 finish since the 2024 season to round out a wholly encouraging weekend for Alpine in China. Following a low-key Sprint, the Enstone outfit's decision to not pit at the same time as the frontrunners promoted the Argentine driver up the order during the Grand Prix, but he dropped back once again when Haas’ Esteban Ocon tagged him into a synchronised spin. Recovering from the incident, Colapinto clung on to P10 to take the final point on offer.

Williams’ one-lap pace may not be quite at the level they had hoped for – with both Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon knocked out in SQ1 and Q1 – but the Spaniard took every opportunity to improve back to the top 10 on Sunday. He could only manage P12 in the Sprint so, determined to score the Grove outfit’s first points of the season, Sainz pitted early and drove a calm race to improve from 17th to ninth place.

Having been outshone by his rookie team mate last time out in Australia, Liam Lawson had plenty to prove as Racing Bulls’ more experienced driver. While Arvid Lindblad failed to finish the Sprint, Lawson scored for the first time this season as he pipped Bearman to the line, with neither choosing to pit during the Safety Car period. The New Zealander was then knocked back by a Q2 exit before an early stop helped him progress through the field in the Grand Prix, ultimately taking P7 to bring the squad level on points with sister team Red Bull.

Alongside Hamilton, Leclerc encapsulated the emerging pattern of Ferrari qualifying slower than Mercedes while coming close to matching them on race pace, with the Monegasque securing a strong haul of points with P3 and P4 across the Sprint and race. While their overarching mission was to take the fight to Mercedes, Leclerc ended up getting stuck into more exhilarating wheel-to-wheel action with his team mate, but they still undoubtedly ended the weekend as the grid's second strongest duo.

It was a fairly dire weekend for Max Verstappen and he didn’t mince his words as he called the Sprint a “disaster” before lamenting his “frustrating” retirement in the Chinese Grand Prix. The Dutchman narrowly missed out on points after ending the Sprint ninth, which involved a major recovery after he tumbled down the order following a slow getaway. He went on to experience the same problem on the opening lap of the race and eventually retired 45 laps in with a car issue, scoring zero points for the first time since the 2025 Austrian Grand Prix.

Our judges ranked Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg level with Verstappen – he similarly endured one retirement and one drive that took him tantalisingly close to the points, although it was the opposite way round to the Red Bull driver. Hulkenberg was consistently 11th across the sessions with the exception of the Sprint, during which he slowed to a stop and was unable to finish. He was later buoyed by Qualifying as he missed out on a spot in the top 10 by a mere 0.002s, showing that Audi certainly have potential, but a wheelgun issue at his pit stop limited his chances to break into the points.

As a brand new team, Cadillac learn more and more with every session that passes, something which Valtteri Bottas demonstrated perfectly in China. After suffering a loss of power that forced him to retire from the Sprint, the Finn completed the Grand Prix to mark the American team’s first double-car finish. With others experiencing various car issues, Bottas had a relatively problem-free race and crossed the line in P13, indicating strong progress over the opening two rounds.

Missing out

Hadjar only just missed out on a spot in the top half of this week’s Power Rankings, the 21-year-old securing four points for Red Bull after bouncing back from an early spin.