There were three clear standouts in the Formula 1 field as drivers returned to a track they'd already run at extensively in 2025 - albeit some of them doing so in different cars.
So which one of the three made the biggest impression - and how does the beleaguered, self-deprecating points leader Lando Norris rank?
How do the rankings work? The 20 drivers will be ranked in order of performance from best to worst on each grand prix weekend. This will be based on the full range of criteria, ranging from pace and racecraft to consistency and whether they made key mistakes. How close each driver got to delivering on the maximum performance potential of the car will be an essential consideration.
It’s important to note both that this reflects performance across the entire weekend, cognisant of the fact that qualifying is effectively ‘lap 0’ of the race and key to laying the foundations to the race, and that it is not a ranking of the all-round qualities of each driver. It’s simply about how they performed on a given weekend. Therefore, the ranking will fluctuate significantly from weekend to weekend.
And with each of the 10 cars fundamentally having different performance potential and ‘luck’ (ie factors outside of a driver’s control) contributing to the way the weekend plays out, this ranking will also differ significantly from the overall results.
Started: 3rd Finished: 2nd
Russell did everything right, qualifying strongly even though he was hit with a one-place grid penalty that wasn't his error.
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He mitigated that penalty by jumping to second at the start and did what he could to keep the quicker Piastri in range. Realistically, second was always the best that he could muster - and doing that while battling the repeated brake-by-wire system failures and having to outwit Norris in battle late on was outstanding.
It means he pips two others to the top spot.
Verdict: Systems strife complicated his mission.
Started: 1st Finished: 1st
While his team-mate demonstrated that victory in a McLaren isn't a foregone conclusion, Piastri nailed the weekend. He always seemed that bit more comfortable with the McLaren than Norris and ticked every box he needed to.
The icing on the cake was a well-executed safety-car restart that ensured Russell couldn't threaten him, allowing Piastri to close out a victory he never looked like letting slip through his grasp.
Verdict: Title-winning imperiousness.
Started: 4th Finished: 7th
Had Gasly been able to do the seemingly impossible and hold off Verstappen on the last lap, then he might well have been ranked top.
But despite failing to do that, it was an impressive weekend for Gasly, who got the most out of the car in qualifying then kept the Alpine well clear of the rest of the 'Class B' runners - even though the safety car coming out shortly after he'd made his final stop was unfortunate.
That said, he still had a two-lap tyre-life advantage over Verstappen so it didn't impact that battle.
Verdict: Not much more he could have done.
Started: 7th Finished: 6th
Struggled all weekend with braking problems and the limitations imposed by the need to dial in understeer to protect the rears.
But the RB21 was still a step behind Mercedes and Ferrari in race conditions, although time lost by Verstappen in both pitstops didn't help his cause. In the circumstances, sixth was a good result.
Verdict: Salvaged what he could.
Started: 2nd Finished: 4th
Leclerc has got the Ferrari where he wants it in terms of balance, if not in terms of overall pace and, just as at Suzuka, delivered a weekend where he got pretty much everything out of what was marginally the third-best car behind Mercedes.
While it's possible he could have beaten one or both of Norris and Russell had the race played out differently, being forced onto the hards for the long final stint made that extremely unlikely.
Verdict: Close to the maximum.
Started: 9th Finished: 5th
In qualifying trim, Hamilton underperformed and appeared to lack confidence in the Ferrari in the faster corners. But he drove a decent race to climb to fifth and found himself much more comfortable with the car, although still didn't have the pace of his team-mate.
However, the fact he claimed to have learned more than on any other weekend suggests that the understanding built up will be far more valuable than the 10 points he scored.
Verdict: Signs of progress.
Started: 20th Finished: 10th
Regretted his decision to sit out FP1 to allow Ryo Hirakawa to drive, although it was a logical choice to do so in Bahrain given the experience of testing.
Bearman struggled for confidence, particularly thanks to a front-locking problem, and the attempt to get through Q1 without the security of squeezing in three runs backfired.
But he drove a superb race to take a point, with a strong first lap and good racecraft serving him well - especially in keeping Antonelli behind.
Verdict: Poor qualifying, outstanding in the race.
Started: 15th Finished: 12th
Had the double misfortune in Q1 of getting caught out disastrously by the pitlane traffic jam at the start of his final run - meaning the tyre prep went awry after having to race his way to the chequered flag - and the lengthy delay before Hulkenberg lost his time to track limits. That meant Albon should have been in Q2, but wasn't.
He had the speed to have been in Q3, which would have transformed his prospects for the race.
That said, a long opening stint on softs meant he was on target to finish in the lower end of the points but for the safety car forcing an early final stop to take mediums, rather than his favoured softs.
Verdict: Quick but unlucky in qualifying and the race.
Started: 14th Finished: 8th
Ocon looked far more comfortable with the upgraded Haas floor than he did at Suzuka, comfortably outpacing Bearman in Q1 before, uncharacteristically, shunting heavily on his first Q2 lap after losing it on the Turn 2 exit kerb.
He partly made up for that with an excellent race drive, hanging onto the gains conferred by an early undercut pitstop and keeping at bay the potentially faster Red Bull of Tsunoda.
While the qualifying crash hurts his ranking, Ocon managed to at least partially make up for that with his race drive.
Verdict: Q2 shunt affects his placing.
Started: 10th Finished: 9th
This weekend was a difficult slog for Tsunoda, in many ways harder than Suzuka despite the fact he reached Q3 and scored his first Red Bull points in ninth.
Struggling with the same problems as Verstappen, he looked all at sea in practice but managed to pip Doohan to the final Q3 place.
He battled on in the race, surviving contact with Sainz's Williams, and bagged probably the most welcome two points of his career.
Verdict: Tough going but stuck at it.
Started: 16th Finished: DSQ
Excelled in qualifying to set 13th-fastest time in Q2, especially given an oil leak restricted him to seven laps in FP2, only to be bumped back to 16th when it was belatedly discovered that he had exceeded track limits at Turn 11 on his Q1 lap.
He finished 15th on the road after a decent drive having slipped to last on the opening lap - the consequence of being forced off at Turn 2 by Lawson's presence after a so-so launch - but was excluded for plank wear.
Verdict: Did what he could with the tricky Sauber.
Started: 5th Finished: 11th
Antonelli qualified a couple of tenths off Russell, then pulled off a couple of impressive moves in battle - albeit suffering a brief off on the first lap - before his race unravelled strategically.
That was partly down to his understandable rookie struggles with tyre management, forcing the choice between either running a long final stint on hards, or converting to a three-stopper with two soft stints.
The latter choice was compromised by the safety car timing, forcing an early final stop, turning what would likely have been, at worst, eighth place into a point-less afternoon.
Verdict: Tyre-management inexperience and safety car timing stung.
Started: 6th Finished: 3rd
To judge Norris by what he said about himself, he should be rock bottom in these rankings and certainly it was an untidy, uncomfortable weekend.
The deficit to Piastri was exaggerated by a Q3 lap that started to get away from him at Turn 1 and that he never got fully under control again.
It was a similar story in the race, with the misjudged attempt to creep to the front of his grid box leading to a five-second penalty (which hits his ranking hard), then the failure to pass the hobbled Russell at the end - although he also had some good moments in battle such as on the first lap and with his pass on Leclerc in the last stint.
Verdict: Made heavy weather of it.
Started: 13th Finished: 15th
The Aston Martin's slow-corner struggles and general lack of pace made it probably the ninth-best car in Bahrain. In that context, Alonso's performance (after sitting out FP1) was a decent one and he was his usual attacking self in trying to make gains around the outside on the opening lap, albeit without much luck.
After running 12th on the first lap, he inevitably slipped behind quicker cars and the safety car made any chance of late gains impossible.
The one caveat is that there was little sign of Alonso's usual magic, so there's a difficult-to-test impression that perhaps with the car so poor he's going through the motions at times.
Verdict: A par performance in a below-par car.
Started: 11th Finished: 14th
Much in common with all of Doohan's season to date, a few problems made for a weekend that was worse on paper than it was in reality.
He was brisk, albeit not quite with the edge of pace of Gasly, but overworking the tyres on his prep lap ahead of his final Q2 run cost him a place in Q3.
He was on course for points, but struggled on the hards and was shuffled back. A five-second penalty for track limits infringements also cost him a place to Hadjar (and Hulkenberg before his disqualification).
Verdict: Flirted with a points breakthrough.
Started: 18th Finished: 18th
Despite his prior F1 experience in Bahrain, albeit in much cooler conditions, Bortoleto struggled for confidence and with the challenges of the tyres.
That meant he always looked a step behind Hulkenberg on underlying pace in a Sauber that looked tricky to drive.
Struggles with the Sauber in dirty air made for a tricky race.
Verdict: A frustrating weekend.
Started: 12th Finished: 13th
Hadjar felt he'd been a little complacent about his pace on the final Q2 run, thinking he'd done enough to make the top 10 but missing out.
That said, the pace of the VCARB wasn't quite as strong as expected, which is reflected in the fact he was always stuck well in the midfield after wheelspin at the start meant he dropped to 16th.
Verdict: Not at his Suzuka level.
Started: 19th Finished: 17th
Stroll's always looked to be giving away a little pace to Alonso, although chief trackside officer Mike Krack blamed the qualifying struggle on Stroll's side of the garage on the fact "the ride height set-up was incorrect, which created high levels of understeer and cost him significant laptime".
Despite that, there were no changes under parc ferme as the team didn't want to sacrifice the estimated 10 seconds of race time lost to starting from the pits, although Stroll also said the FIA permitted the "minimal changes" required.
A tap from Lawson didn't have much of an impact on what was an understandably quiet race.
Verdict: Car not driver is the fundamental problem.
Started: 8th Finished: DNF
Sainz showed good pace in qualifying in Bahrain to make Q3 and jumped to sixth on the first lap. However, his bold attempts to race cars that the Williams probably didn't have the pace to beat perhaps hastened him being shuffled back.
The clash with Tsunoda when the Red Bull driver had a small wobble as Sainz moved towards him for the entry to Turn 2 led to damage that ended his race - but the 10-second penalty for hitting Antonelli would have likely ensured it would be a point-less one anyway.
Verdict: Progressing, but Antonelli incident costs him.
Started: 17th Finished: 16th
Lawson showed reasonable pace in fits and starts, and would have made Q2 but for the DRS snapping closed when he lifted to mitigate wheelspin exiting Turn 10. That said, he still could have reactivated it having done so.
His race was blighted by needless clashes with Hulkenberg and Stroll, earning him 15 seconds of penalties and eliminating any fading hope of a good result.
Verdict: Very patchy on his second RB weekend.
