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POWER RANKINGS: Who stunned our judges with their Miami Grand Prix efforts?
Formula 1 went from one Sprint to another with a thrilling weekend of action around the Miami International Autodrome, but which drivers impressed our Power Rankings judges and made the top half of the charts? Check out the latest scores below.
How it works
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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
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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)
Lando Norris got the victory he had been craving at the 110th time of asking in the Miami Grand Prix. While there was some fortune with the mid-race Safety Car, the manner in which he defended against Max Verstappen at the restart and then pulled away earned plenty of plaudits, including a high score from our judging panel.
Early in the race, it was Norris’s team mate, Oscar Piastri, who appeared to be the most likely of the McLaren drivers to cause an upset, having charged from sixth to second at the start. However, the Safety Car worked against the Australian and shuffled him down the order, after which he scrapped with Ferrari rival Carlos Sainz and was forced to pit for a new front wing due to contact.
Yuki Tsunoda started his Miami weekend on the back foot with an SQ2 exit while RB team mate Daniel Ricciardo starred to qualify fourth for the Sprint and then convert it in the race. But the tables were turned from that point onwards, with Tsunoda squeezing his way into Q3 (Ricciardo placing only 18th) and then taking a fine seventh during the Grand Prix.
Verstappen had looked set for another win after securing pole position and edging away from the field at the start, only for the Safety Car to scupper his efforts and allow Norris through. But there was an uncharacteristic mistake from the Dutchman at the Turn 14/15 chicane, which left him with car damage, while he had no answer to the lead McLaren’s pace after the restart.
Charles Leclerc started the 2024 season in the shadows of team mate Sainz but the Monegasque built on flashes of pace to lead the internal Ferrari battle throughout Round 6, securing second on the grid for the Grand Prix and rounding out the podium places behind Verstappen and Norris.
Miami proved to be another challenging weekend for Mercedes as they continue their quest for competitiveness in F1’s latest ground effect era, but Lewis Hamilton emerged with a solid sixth place on race day – via plenty of wheel-to-wheel battles – to lead the Silver Arrows charge over team mate George Russell.
Alpine endured a horrible start to the campaign and entered last weekend’s Grand Prix as one of three teams, alongside Williams and Kick Sauber, who were yet to score a point, but Esteban Ocon finally got them off the mark at the Miami International Autodrome with a determined run to 10th position.
As touched on above, Sainz spent the Miami weekend chasing team mate Leclerc, with his push for the podium also dented by the timing of the Safety Car. To make matters worse, the Spaniard then clashed with Piastri, after which the stewards handed him a five-second penalty that turned fourth place into fifth.
Nico Hulkenberg arrived in Florida with an Audi works deal in his pocket, along with three points finishes across the previous five races, and the weekend started well thanks to a P7 finish in the Sprint. That would be his only reward of the event, however, as he dropped out of the top-10 on race day and ultimately had to settle for 11th.
F1 NATION: What does Lando’s first win mean for him and McLaren? – It’s our Miami GP review
Fernando Alonso came to blows with team mate Lance Stroll at the start of the Sprint and could only manage 15th in qualifying, four spots behind the Canadian, but the two-time champion made up for it on race day by rising to ninth – continuing his and Aston Martin’s 100% record for the season.
Missing out
Russell was just the other side of the cut after finishing the race eighth, with fourth-placed Sergio Perez (via his wild Turn 1 moment), 15th-placed Ricciardo (having risen from the back after a grid penalty and Alex Albon (in another battling display for Williams) for close company.
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