Formula One has recently revealed the overall Power Rankings leaderboard after the fourth race of the season in Imola. A five-judge panel assessed each driver after the Emilia Romagna GP and gave them a score out of ten. The scores solely depend on the drivers\’ performances over the weekend, taking their powerful automobiles out of the equation. The scores from the experts have been averaged to create a race score. The final race score has been tallied up across the season to produce overall Power Rankings of the season so far. The following article contains a detailed ranking analysis of the top F1 drivers in the 2022 championship.
Max Verstappen
Max Verstappen won the second race of the season for Red Bull on Ferrari\’s home turf. He also impressed the judges with his performance across the weekend and in the season so far, despite two early retirements. Max has secured the first position in the 2022 Power rankings with a perfect ten from the F1 judges.
Verstappen secured Red Bull\’s 75th pole position during a tough qualifying session that witnessed five red flags. The Dutchman remained in the lead at the Saturday Sprint and clinched a P1 finish. Moreover, Max finished on top for the second time this season at Imola with a finish time of 1:32:07.986 and bagged 26 points during the weekend. The 24-year-old also pulled off the fastest lap and brought himself back in the championship battle against Ferarri\’s Charles Leclerc. The reigning world champ is on top of the power rankings after the race in Imola.
Lando Norris
Lando Norris continued to pull off another amazing performance in Imola and secured a podium, finishing third in Sunday\’s race. The McLaren driver bagged his second podium in Imola and a third in Italy. Norris qualified P3 on Friday\’s Sprint qualification. However, the British-Belgian racer dropped to a P5 during Saturday\’s Sprint. However, the 22-year-old showed some incredible fight to work his way back to the P3 while other drivers struggled to get a good grip in a Grand Prix that was affected by rain. With a final P3 in Sunday\’s race, the F1 judges have given Lando Norris an incredible score of 9.4, which lands him in the second spot on the Power Rankings.
George Russell
George Russell really impressed everyone during the Imola weekend. Although his veteran teammate Lewis Hamilton struggled to get ahead of his rivals. The Mercedes driver tried really hard to get the most performance out of a struggling Mercedes W13. Russell also had a tough start to the weekend as he finished P11 in Friday\’s race. The British racer failed to move up the ladder and remained in the same position after the Saturday Sprint. Starting at P11 on Sunday, the 24-year-old was quick off the blocks to get to the sixth position at the start. George continued his strong run this season and finished P4. Russell has earned 8.6 points with a tie for the third position.
Valtteri Bottas
Valterri Bottas and the Alfa Romeo had a tough start as a technical issue stopped him from qualifying better than P8 during Friday\’s race. Moreover, the Finnish racer fought wheel-to-wheel against Fernando Alonso for P7 in Saturday\’s sprint. The 32-year-old car suffered some damage from Carlos Sainz and Daniel Ricciardo\’s tangle. Bottas managed to finish P5 just 0.6 seconds behind Mercedes\’ George Russell on Sunday. He has received a similar score of 8.6 and tied with Russell for the third position in power rankings.
Sergio Perez
Red Bull had a great race in Imola, with Verstappen and Sergio Perez finishing P1 & P2 during Sunday\’s race. The Mexican driver had a shaky start on Friday as he finished P7. The 32-year-old improved his position to P3 during Saturday\’s sprint. Fortunately, the Red Bull driver shot up to P2 and kept Ferrari\’s Charles Leclerc in check. Leclerc spun while chasing Perez, costing him a valuable podium spot. Sergio has received a score of 8.4, with a fifth position in the power rankings.
Yuki Tsunoda
Yuki Tsunoda clinched other points finish during a challenging home weekend for AlphaTauri. The Japanese driver finished 16th during Friday\’s qualification ahead of his teammate Pierre Gasly. The 21-year-old shot up five positions during the Saturday Sprint. Further, Yuki kept his good run going and made up another five positions on Sunday to finish P7 over the weekend. Tsunoda scored 8.4 points and tied with Sergio Perez for the fifth position in the power rankings.
Alex Albon
Alex Albon had an early fiery brake issue which resulted in the last position during Friday\’s qualification. However, the Thai racer took back two-position during Saturday\’s sprint. The 26-year-old stayed behind Esteban Ocon for the most part of the race to finish P11 after a penalty for Ocon. However, the Williams driver did not allow Lewis Hamilton and Pierre Gasly to get ahead of him. Albon was given a score of 8.2 with a seventh position in the power rankings.
Kevin Magnussen
Kevin Magnussen had a strong start for Haas on Friday as he finished fourth. However, the Danish driver failed to fend off Carlos Sainz, Sergio Perez, and Lando Norris during the Saturday Sprint and finished P8. Kevin started off quick during Sunday\’s GP and shot up to P5 during the first lap. Unfortunately, the 29-year-old could not keep up the pace when the track dried and finished P9. Kevin has scored 8.0 points with an eighth spot in the power rankings.
Sebastian Vettel
During his second race of 2022, Sebastian Vettel leads Aston Martin to Q3 on Friday. However, the fraining tires resulted in him dropping to P13 during Saturday\’s sprint. The 34-year-old made a strong comeback during the GP by getting up to P9. Moreover, the German racer progressed to P7 before dropping to P8 and delivered his team their first points of the season. Vettel scored 7.8 points, and the judges ranked him ninth on the power ratings.
Lance Stroll
Aston Martin and Red Bull were the only teams whose both drivers scored points at Imola. Lance Stroll started out at P15 and quickly jumped up to P11 at the start. The Canadian-Belgian driver broke into the top 10 and finished P10 ahead of Albon at the end of the race. The judges gave Stroll a score of 6.8 with a tenth position in the power rankings.
Unfortunately, Charles Leclerc missed out on the top 10 power rankings. The drivers\’ rankings leader put up a solid performance on Friday and the Sprint. Leclerc was going well at P3, but he lost control of his car while trying to get ahead of Sergio Perez and closer to Verstappen. The Ferrari driver found himself at P9 and shot up to P6 in the end.