Max Verstappen has leaped up to first place in the F1 2022 Power Rankings after his win in the Miami GP
Max Verstappen sits on top of the F1 2022 Power rankings followed by drivers’ championship leader, Charles Leclerc and Williams’ driver Alex Albon in third and second place. Verstappen didn’t have the easiest start to life in Miami, a hydraulics issue – which he blamed for his qualifying mistake on Saturday – cutting short his FP2 session and losing him the chance to put down a long run at Miami. The Dutchman nailed it on Sunday, though, leaping off the line to take P2 off Carlos Sainz and then passing Charles Leclerc soon afterwards. A late Safety Car did little to rattle the reigning champion.
Charles Leclerc, who is placed second, took pole position after Verstappen’s mistake in the Saturday session and while the championship leader expressed his confidence that the Ferrari’s cornering speed would be enough to keep the powerful Red Bull at bay, that hope didn’t materialize. Instead, the Monegasque driver was passed by Verstappen and finished second. Despite a late Safety Car restart giving him a second chance, Leclerc couldn’t take the lead back off his rival.
Alex Albon is one of the names you would least expect to occupy the third spot. However, he put in his finest drive of the season in Miami and one of the best of his career, as implied by the lofty Power Rankings score, which reflects his journey from P18 on the grid to a stellar P10 at the chequered flag. That single point was doubled when Fernando Alonso was penalized post-race, giving Albon a deserved P9 finish on a day in which he didn’t put a foot wrong.
How does the F1 2022 Power Rankings work?
F1 has a dedicated five-judge panel which 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. The experts’ scores are then averaged out to produce a race score – with those scores then tallied up across the season on the overall Power Rankings Leaderboard.
Hence, the Power Rankings Leaderboard might reflect completely different standings from that of the Drivers’ Championship Leaderboard.
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