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The Italian Grand Prix brought much joy to home team Ferrari and its spearhead Charles Leclerc, but Monza - despite its simple-in-theory layout - proved a real handful for many of his peers, with very few managing to string together a truly clean weekend.
So, which regulars made the best impression in their cars' low-downforce configurations - and how did Formula 1's newest debutant Franco Colapinto fare?
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: 4th Finished: 1st
It was nip-and-tuck with Carlos Sainz in qualifying, a battle Leclerc won by just six thousandths of a second in a Ferrari that was very nearly but not quite a pole position threat.
He did everything right on the first lap, squeezing past Norris approaching Lesmo 1, then executed his one-stop race perfectly to pull off a famous home victory - again reminding the world that he’s far more than just a super-fast qualifier.
Verdict: At the top of his game.
Started: 9th Finished: 9th
Albon’s qualifying performance was outstanding to take ‘Class B’ pole ahead of Nico Hulkenberg.
The race was a little more challenging and he didn’t have the pace to beat Kevin Magnussen’s Haas. But he didn’t need to - as he kept it clean and, after finishing 10th on the road thanks to holding off two-stopping Fernando Alonso, moved up to ninth in the end when Magnussen’s penalty was applied.
Verdict: Best possible result in qualifying and race.
Started: 2nd Finished: 2nd
Lando Norris always seemed to have the slight edge on single-lap pace, but Piastri’s inspired move at the second chicane on the opening lap turned the tables. The team was vague but ultimately didn’t say the pass was against any instructions given, meaning it was fair game and an emphatic statement of intent.
From there, he raced well but McLaren didn’t take Ferrari’s one-stopper seriously enough and he fell 2.6s short of catching Leclerc.
Verdict: Lap-one move a season highlight.
Started: 7th Finished: 6th
Given the Red Bull’s limitations, it’s difficult to argue Verstappen could have done much more.
His Q3 pace would have been stronger even with chronic understeer had team-mate Sergio Perez not run through the gravel at Lesmo 2 in front of him, then he finished sixth in the fourth-best car in a race where he was slightly compromised by an engine issue and lost time at his pitstop to a slow right-rear change.
Verdict: Did what he could.
Started: 6th Finished: 5th
Hamilton was frustrated with himself for his Q3 performance on the basis that he felt pole position was achievable. In his own words: “Turn 1-2 I lost a tenth and a half to my previous Q2 lap, then I lost another tenth in Turn 11, apex speed, so it was just absolutely ridiculous from my side, completely unacceptable.”
In a Mercedes that didn’t have the pace to do better, fifth was the best possible result.
Verdict: Qualifying disappointing, race ideal.
Started: 1st Finished: 3rd
As is often the case, there was plenty that was good about Norris’s weekend but too many rough edges.
He wasn’t happy with his qualifying lap despite taking pole, then lost the lead at the second chicane, which in turn lost him a place to Leclerc.
That defined his race, as he struggled a little more with the front-left tyre graining than Piastri, primarily thanks to not being in clean air, meaning he was never able to come back at his team-mate and lost out to one-stopping Leclerc despite undercutting his way ahead with a lap-14 pitstop.
Verdict: Not quite at the top of his game.
Started: 18th Finished: 12th
The late call-up combined with the fact Colapinto had only once driven the Williams before - in FP1 at Silverstone - means he has to be judged generously.
He made good progress, but having been a respectable 0.241s off Albon on the first runs, he ran wide at Lesmo 2 on his second attempt while attempting to make Q2. He drove a clean race and showed decent pace relative to Albon.
Verdict: A strong foundation on his debut.
Started: 5th Finished: 4th
Sainz was only six thousandths of a second behind Leclerc in qualifying, but ended the race 15.6s and three places behind his team-mate.
He was just over three seconds behind Leclerc when the latter pitted, but that gap ballooned to nine seconds as Sainz ran four laps longer.
The gap hovered in the 11-12s bracket for much of the next stint, but he fell away more dramatically in the final 10 laps once Piastri passed him, given all that was required was to monitor the big gap to Hamilton behind.
Verdict: Race exaggerated gap to Leclerc.
Started: 8th Finished: 8th
Perez struggled with the same balance problems as Verstappen, describing the car as “a boat”.
Although he was just 0.040s off Verstappen in qualifying, the gap would have been bigger had Verstappen’s final run not been compromised by Perez’s Lesmo 2 off.
He battled George Russell hard in the race but was always likely fighting a losing battle and fell back from the Mercedes driver once behind.
Verdict: Lacked Verstappen’s edge.
Started: 11th Finished: 11th
Alonso was in a flippant mood after qualifying that laid bare his disappointment with the development progress, saying of the development that the “more difficulties you have, the more hard lessons you learn - and we are experts on those”.
The Aston Martin was in the fight in ‘Class B’, leading it after taking an early pitstop.
Alonso's two-stopper didn’t quite pay off, but just 1.039s of race time cost him two places and points thanks to finishing just behind Albon and then ending up 0.193s behind Magnussen when the Haas driver’s penalty was applied.
Verdict: About par for the car, but so close to points.
Started: 14th Finished: 15th
Prevailed in the intra-team battle with Esteban Ocon in qualifying despite brake troubles but finished behind in the race, both by narrow margins - with the pair very much at the limit of what the Alpine could do.
Gasly was the first to commit to a two-stopper with an early change to hards, which meant a busy race that never threatened to yield anything better than a mid-teens finish.
Verdict: A decent weekend in limited machinery.
Started: 15th Finished: 14th
Just lost out to Gasly in qualifying, but finished ahead in the race - with a one-stop strategy that, despite this, could have worked out a little better.
The main positive of the weekend was that there was no repeat of the troubles he had at Zandvoort, and although he wasn’t emphatic about the reasons why he did confirm some parts had been changed.
Verdict: Limited scope to do much more.
Started: 19th Finished: 16th
Bottas would certainly have qualified a few places higher but for the late yellow flag at Parabolica, although a moment at Ascari shortly after going through the gravel scattered by Colapinto’s off meant that Bottas would have anyway needed a strong final corner to have made Q2.
He ran long on hards, which allowed him to spend four illusory laps in the points before making his stop and dropping back to somewhere around the right level for a Sauber.
Verdict: Did what he could in the slowest car.
Started: 16th Finished: DNF
This was a frustrating weekend for Tsunoda given he ran the RB upgrade package that, by the team’s own admission, didn’t work as hoped. Tsunoda put it more bluntly, describing the car as "ridiculous" to drive after struggling in Q1.
His race didn’t last long, Tsunoda running 15th before being clattered by Hulkenberg at the first chicane and retiring to the pits.
Verdict: Upgrade travails ruined his weekend.
Started: 20th Finished: 18th
Despite not having the upgraded floor/diffuser, Zhou was on the brink of a lap that could well have put him into Q2, only to go through the gravel Colapinto pulled onto the track, leading to a moment in Ascari then having to lift at Parabolica for the Magnussen yellow flag.
Executed the race well, losing three seconds to a slow stop, in what was a hopeless cause.
Verdict: Did what he could with the machinery.
Started: 17th Finished: 19th
Although Stroll didn’t have Alonso’s edge of pace, that was exaggerated by the fact he had to lift at Parabolica just as the Magnussen-inspired yellow flag was ending while on a lap that should have got him into Q2.
He was 15th when he made a late third pitstop in an unsuccessful bid for fastest lap, with the eight-tenth deficit to the actual fastest lap (Norris's) despite the tyre advantage showing how far off Aston Martin is.
Verdict: An unobtrusive weekend.
Started: 3rd Finished: 7th
Russell felt “on the back foot” after sitting out FP1 and the first 22 minutes of FP2 thanks to the repair work after Kimi Antonelli’s crash.
Set-up changes made after FP3 didn’t immediately pay off, but after struggling with an inconsistent balance through Q1 and Q2 things came together in the nick of time in Q3, perhaps to the point where without a small moment exiting the second chicane he might have grabbed pole.
His race went wrong when he was caught out by Piastri’s braking point at Turn 1, forcing him to take to the escape road where he damaged his front wing by clipping a marker. That led to an early, slow pitstop to change the front wing and all he could do was prevail in his battle with Perez to salvage seventh.
Verdict: Turn 1 misjudgements means his ranking plummets.
Started: 13th Finished: 10th
This was a weekend of wildly swinging fortunes for Magnussen.
In qualifying, his final Q1 run went wrong and he ended up in the Parabolica gravel, which caused a yellow flag that ensured he wasn’t bumped into the drop zone.
Pace-wise, he drove a strong race to ninth-on-the-road and even salvaged 10th by 0.193s ahead of Alonso once the 10-second penalty was applied for causing a collision with Gasly.
Unfortunately, the penalty points triggered a one-race ban.
Verdict: A very mixed bag.
Started: 12th Finished: 13th
As he ran without the troubled RB upgrade package thanks to limited parts, any comparison with Tsunoda is distorted - but Ricciardo did feel he'd extracted the most from the car in qualifying.
Eleventh early on was a good foundation for a points run, but he inadvertently squeezed Hulkenberg approaching Ascari on lap one and was hit with a five-second penalty, which he served at his first stop before having to take a 10-second hit at the flag for the penalty not being served properly - as a pit crew member briefly touched the front wing.
That cost him a place to Colapinto. In any case, realistically the car pace wasn’t quite strong enough for points.
Verdict: Ascari misjudgment hurts ranking badly.
Started: 10th Finished: 17th
Although he perhaps could have beaten Albon to head the midfield in qualifying, Hulkenberg’s weekend had been going well - until he lost a couple of places at the start, then got pushed onto the grass while trying to get back ahead of Ricciardo approaching Ascari.
That dropped him to 16th, before an early pitstop for a front-wing change sent him to the back.
Frustration perhaps played a part in his big lock-up while trying to pass Tsunoda - which earned him a 10-second penalty and ensured there was no way back.
Verdict: Iffy start turned a good weekend into a bad one.
