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

Max Verstappen took a crucial win in the Las Vegas Grand Prix, and with both McLaren drivers disqualified, slashed Lando Norris' championship lead to just 24 points. The Dutchman topped the top 10 of our Power Rankings list, but who else impressed last weekend? Check out the latest scores and overall 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)

Having overtaken poleman Lando Norris when the McLaren driver ran wide at Turn 1, Max Verstappen never looked back en route to his sixth win of the 2025 campaign. The Red Bull driver briefly had to soak up pressure from George Russell's Mercedes, but thereafter cruised to a 20-second-plus win. With Norris and team mate Oscar Piastri both disqualified, Verstappen remains a real threat for the title with two Grands Prix and a Sprint remaining, as the Dutchman sits tied on points with Piastri and just 24 behind Norris.

A disastrous Qualifying left Kimi Antonelli only P17 on the grid as moving fractionally before the lights went out then earned the Mercedes driver a five-second penalty. Despite that, the Formula 1 rookie put in an inspired drive, switching his soft tyres on the second lap and running the remaining 48 tours with a set of hard tyres. He moved into fourth, holding Piastri at bay and only dropping behind at the chequered flag due to the penalty, before the McLaren disqualification moved the Italian up to an unlikely podium.

A seventh pole position of the season – achieved in treacherous conditions – put Norris in prime position for victory and practically allowed him to place one hand on a maiden Drivers' World Championship. The Briton aggressively cut across the front of Verstappen off the line but ran deep into Turn 1, dropping behind both Verstappen and Russell. Biding his time to overtake Russell in the second stint, Norris was comfortably P2 until backing off substantially over the final laps. The team's call was linked to concerns over skid block wear which would ultimately prove futile as he was disqualified – a result that could have huge ramifications for the title.

Another impressive Qualifying performance on a low-downforce, high-speed circuit similar to Baku left Carlos Sainz third on the grid, which eventually became P5 in the final classification. The Williams driver lost a position to Russell at the start but held quicker cars including Charles Leclerc and Piastri at bay over the opening stint, only slipping behind the pair after the pit stop sequence. Promoted two places due to McLaren's disqualification, Sainz achieved his second-best result of the season after his Baku podium, finishing more than 10 seconds clear of Isack Hadjar.

Having just missed out on a Q3 appearance after finishing P11 in Qualifying, Nico Hulkenberg utilised the hard tyre in the opening stint compared to all those ahead on the medium rubber. Extending his first stint, which ultimately allowed him to rejoin in P9, the Kick Sauber driver was never headed again and jumped up to seventh in the final classification. It has moved the team to within four and five points respectively of Aston Martin and Haas in the Constructors' Championship after back-to-back scores for the German.

A winner in Las Vegas 12 months ago, Russell ultimately had to settle for the runner-up spot in 2025 having nursed a steering issue from the opening laps. It didn't stop the Mercedes driver jumping ahead of poleman Norris on the first lap, though, and the Briton even challenged Verstappen in the first stint. Pushing too hard in the second stint destroyed his tyres and allowed Norris back ahead, but P2 beckoned with McLaren's impending infringement.

Going under the radar, Hadjar bagged more points for Racing Bulls and back-to-back scores in the process having been classified sixth in Las Vegas. The Frenchman qualified P8 but moved up several positions through the opening turn, finding himself initially in fifth before being re-passed by Piastri's McLaren and Leclerc's Ferrari in the opening stint. Having made his sole pit stop, Hadjar circulated alone for the second stint to solidify Racing Bulls' P6 in the Teams' Championship.

Having struggled for pace in a wet Qualifying, Leclerc put on a charge during the race and ultimately just fell short of a podium by two-tenths. Starting P9 and having just avoided been taken out through the opening corner, Leclerc went on to overtake Ollie Bearman, Piastri and Hadjar, as well as Sainz as the Williams exited the pits. Sub-optimal strategy meant he rejoined behind Piastri and slipped away from the battling McLaren driver and Antonelli ahead, the Ferrari driver eventually classified P4.

Left only P5 on the grid, Piastri slipped behind both Racing Bulls at the first corner which included contact from Liam Lawson. The Kiwi suffered an issue on the second lap allowing Piastri back ahead, but the McLaren driver then slipped behind Leclerc in the opening stint, only moving back ahead through the pit stop sequence. Stuck behind Antonelli in the final phase and eventually being disqualified from P4, a potential 30-point gap to Norris is just 24 heading to Qatar.

Quietly going about his business, Esteban Ocon raced on the fringes of the top 10 for much of proceedings, having started P13 and eventually finished just outside the points in P11. McLaren's double disqualification helped move Ocon and Haas team mate Bearman into the points, the American team also moving ahead of Aston Martin in the Teams' Championship by a single point as a result.

Missing Out

Bearman just misses out on a place in the top half of this week’s Power Rankings, the Briton having run in the points in the early stages and re-passed Fernando Alonso in the second stint before taking P10.