Two Dutchmen head up the Power Rankings from the 2022 Italian Grand Prix, which Max Verstappen won from P7 on the grid – as debutant Nyck de Vries made his stunning debut. Who else makes up the top 10 from Monza?
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 and the mean of those scores are used to produce a Power Rankings leaderboard, which has been expanded below
A superlative debut from De Vries, who was due to present on F1 TV before being drafted into the Williams in place of appendicitis-struck Albon. De Vries made it to Q2, his reward a top-10 start, with the Dutch driver then managing to take ninth after fending off Alfa Romeo’s Zhou in the late stages of the race. Points on debut, plus ‘Driver of the Day’ honours, and the highest Power Rankings score of the week to cap off an impressive weekend. We haven’t included De Vries in the leaderboard below; you can guess where he’d sit…
WATCH: How De Vries’s spectacular Formula 1 debut unfolded at Monza
Verstappen has won five Grands Prix in a row and taken three of those victories from seventh or below on the grid. The Dutchman is on a seriously impressive run of form having once again shrugged off grid penalties to come from seventh to beat pole-sitter Leclerc to victory at Monza. No surprise that the Red Bull driver earned such a lofty score this week, and that he still tops the leaderboard.
READ MORE: ‘Max is on fire at the moment’ – Horner revels in Monza win as Verstappen edges closer to the title
Leclerc took an impressive pole position at Monza but it soon became clear that the Ferrari driver’s race pace just wasn’t enough to beat Verstappen. The Monegasque settled for P2 – his best finish of the last five Grands Prix – and lamented the fact that the race ended under Safety Car. Perhaps Singapore will yield his next win…
READ MORE: Ferrari ‘made a step ahead’ at Monza, says Binotto after Sainz recovery and Leclerc podium
Sainz capped off what ended up being a solid weekend for the Scuderia. Yes, they may have left Italy without the win, but Ferrari out-scored Mercedes with Sainz pulling off a terrific recovery from 18th on the grid (thanks to engine penalties), the Spaniard missing out on a chance for the podium due to the late Safety Car. Given the circumstances, could Sainz have fared much better?
Russell continued his sterling run of top-fives for Mercedes, the Briton taking third place after starting second on the grid – penalties promoting him from P6 in qualifying. Monza was never going to be Mercedes’ fastest circuit, which makes it even more impressive that Russell hit the podium in Italy.
READ MORE: Russell ‘satisfied with the result but not the performance’ after P3 finish at Monza
Norris, like Russell, enjoyed a lack of grid penalties on Sunday. The McLaren driver was promoted to third on the grid from P7 (one place behind Russell) in qualifying, and the driver in orange was actually disappointed to finish seventh having been bogged down by anti-stall at the start, before a slow pit stop and another ill-timed stop under the late Safety Car saw him place behind Red Bull’s Perez.
READ MORE: ‘We just made too many mistakes’ says Norris after leaving Monza disappointed with P7
Gasly qualified ninth for AlphaTauri and was promoted to fifth on the grid. The Frenchman said that he didn’t expect to be able to fight the McLarens, nor the top three teams, and ended up taking a useful P8 for the team that have found points a little harder to come by this season.
READ MORE: P8 at Monza ‘the best we could have hoped for’ says Gasly, as Tsunoda’s point-less streak stretches to 10 races
Hamilton started 19th due to grid penalties, but the seven-time champion actually out-qualified team mate Russell on Saturday. The Mercedes driver progressed to fifth on Sunday in an impressive recovery, perhaps more impressive given he finished ahead of Red Bull driver Perez – who started 13th with penalties. Hamilton and Mercedes hope for much better in Singapore, but the team salvaged all they could from Monza.
READ MORE: Wolff says it’s ‘all to play for’ as Mercedes target second-placed Ferrari in the championship
Zhou has perhaps stayed under the radar in his debut season, which has been affected by numerous retirements, but the Chinese driver attracted the attention of our judges by finishing 10th in Italy, and ending Alfa Romeo’s run of six non-scores. The rookie, who started ninth at Monza after qualifying 14th, tussled with Williams stand-in De Vries late in the race but couldn’t make it past. It might not seem like much, but the point keeps Alfa Romeo in the running for sixth in the championship.
Ricciardo’s result – a DNF – doesn’t do his race justice as the McLaren driver had a decent weekend, qualifying eighth on the grid behind his team mate, to start on the second row of the grid after penalties had been applied. The Australian seemed sure to end his run of three non-scores but his race was ended by an oil leak, the subsequent recovery seeing the race end under the Safety Car. It seemed a cruel way for the outgoing driver to walk away from the circuit on which he clinched a victory in 2021.
READ MORE: Ricciardo says ‘everything shut off’ as he reveals disappointment at late DNF in Italian GP
Missing out
Fernando Alonso did not finish the Italian Grand Prix for Alpine, and the Spanish driver also ended up just missing out on the top 10 in this week’s Power Rankings.
Leaderboard
