The Azerbaijan Grand Prix proved to be one of the best races of the 2024 Formula 1 season.
But some drivers will have come away from the weekend more pleased than others with their performances. As always, Edd Straw sorts the great from the good as he ranks the 20 drivers based on their performance across the weekend.
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: 2nd Finished: 1st
Although his qualifying lap was "messy", Piastri couldn't have done better than second given Leclerc's pace.
He had a difficult first stint, overworking the mediums in dirty air, but his race came alive after the pitstop as he emerged just ahead of Sergio Perez and in a position to attack Charles Leclerc.
Piastri's passing move was brilliantly executed, taking Leclerc by surprise, and turned second into victory. Thereafter, he absorbed the pressure superbly, knowing he couldn't afford to put a foot wrong.
Verdict: Leclerc pass made the difference.
Started: 1st Finished: 2nd
Leclerc didn't miss a beat after his FP1 crash and was in a class of his own in taking pole position thanks to a combination of supreme skill and total confidence.
Victory seemed certain when he commanded the first stint, but after losing a little time running long he fell into Piastri’s clutches once on hards.
Piastri's brilliant move changed his race, and his fruitless chase led to rear-tyre troubles late on that might have cost second but for the Carlos Sainz/Perez collision.
It takes two to make a great battle, and while Leclerc lost he played his part in a magnificent race-long scrap.
Verdict: Outstanding, but eclipsed by Piastri's pass.
Started: 7th Finished: 6th
Given Aston Martin had a difficult weekend, with specification experimentation on Friday that was followed by set-up uncertainty, Alonso was at his hustling best to qualifying at the head of the midfield.
He stayed there at the start, but a relatively early pitstop meant a long stint on hards. Although the late virtual safety car sealed the deal, he had Albon covered.
Verdict: Another Baku classic.
Started: 9th Finished: 7th
Although he was in the unusual position of being pushed by his team-mate, Albon would have qualified ahead of Franco Colapinto but for the airbox fan mishap that meant he didn't get to set a fresh-tyre lap in Q3.
But he drove an excellent race, showing strong pace even on ageing hards in his long first stint - although with the mediums struggling, he couldn't do anything about Alonso in the closing stages.
Had he had, and taken, the chance to qualify ahead of the Aston Martin he'd likely have won the midfield battle.
Verdict: Q3 fan problem cost likely 'Class B' win.
Started: 15th Finished: 4th
There wasn't much Norris could have done to escape Q1 given he encountered double-waved yellows as he approached Turn 18, meaning he had to abort the lap.
And although a quicker first-run time would have saved him, the track evolution rate meant only five drivers set a time good enough to make it to Q2 on their first runs.
He executed his recovery drive superbly, running long on hards and then catching and passing title rival Max Verstappen late on.
Verdict: Excellent salvage job.
Started: 8th Finished: 8th
Colapinto could easily have been cowed into caution by his FP1 crash, but instead showed great fortitude.
Although beating Albon in Q3 was aided by his team-mate's airbox fan mishap, Colapinto performed superbly throughout qualifying.
After a strong first stint in the race, he struggled with the hards but passed Hulkenberg to reclaim 10th just before the Sainz/Perez crash happened, promoting him to eight.
Verdict: Far beyond anything Sargeant produced.
Started: 18th Finished: 12th
The weekend started with what Gasly called the "most difficult Friday of the year".
Things briefly got better with a strong qualifying performance relative to the car's pace in 13th, only to be excluded for a momentary fuel flow infringement.
From the back, he did what he could, characterising it as one of his best races for the year.
Verdict: Overachieved.
Started: 4th Finished: 17th
Perez's improved run of form reached a new high on a track where he excels, outpacing his team-mate both in qualifying and the race.
But for being held up briefly by Norris, without which he'd have undercut Piastri, he might even have had a shot at victory rather than spending much of the second stint hanging onto the top two.
The late clash with Carlos Sainz was avoidable and although it wasn't Perez's trajectory that instigated it, he had the visibility to have missed it - meaning while it wasn't his fault, he could have saved himself.
Verdict: Strong weekend, but bad ending.
Started: 5th Finished: 3rd
While it wouldn't have taken much for him to pick off Perez and Sainz in qualifying given how tight it was, Russell extracted the potential from the Mercedes and achieved what it was capable of in terms of results.
His race was complicated by Verstappen passing him on the first lap, but he put that right in the second stint to secure fifth place before being bumped up to the podium by the late Sainz/Perez crash.
Verdict: Good result in the fourth-best car.
Started: 10th Finished: 10th
It wasn't a perfect weekend for Bearman, who crashed in FP3 after bailing out at Turn 1 too late. That compromised his qualifying preparation and perhaps cost him a Q3 place given had he eliminated a couple of small errors in the castle section he would have made the top 10.
He over-managed the tyres in the first stint, leading to the team ordering Nico Hulkenberg past, but a combination of the Sainz/Perez collision and slipping past his team-mate after the yellow-flag zone allowed him to grab a point.
Verdict: Impressive second outing.
Started: 17th Finished: 14th
Power unit changes meant that Zhou effectively disregarded qualifying, meaning he was there only to provide a tow for Valtteri Bottas. He did that effectively, with his laptime a token attempt on past-their best softs.
His pace was decent in the race considering the limitations of the car. He executed a hard-medium strategy well and managed to keep a Sauber on the lead lap, an achievement in 2024.
Verdict: Better than the result suggests.
Started: 6th Finished: 5th
This was a curious weekend for Verstappen, who found himself in the unusual position of being outperformed by his team-mate.
While he felt the car was improved, set-up changes for FP3 didn't pay off and left him light of confidence. He struggled with understeer and then brake concerns in the race. Verstappen was also denied the chance to take fastest lap after a late change for softs by the virtual safety car.
The set-up mishap held him back, but it was a decision he contributed to making.
Verdict: Strangely subdued.
Started: 19th (pits) Finished: 9th
This was another of those Hamilton weekends that started strongly but got away from him.
On Saturday, amid small changes, he said "one of the components wasn't correctly built, and then that led us the wrong way", which contributed to a difficult qualifying session.
After a strategic decision to take a new power unit, he had a tough race almost permanently in traffic, grabbing ninth from Hulkenberg after the yellow flag zone covering the Sainz/Perez crash.
Verdict: A weekend to forget.
Started: 3rd Finished: 18th
Given Baku is a bogey track for Sainz, he was content to qualify third and 0.440s behind his team-mate.
That laid the foundations for a solid race that came to him in the closing stages as he joined the top-three battle.
Unfortunately, that was also his undoing as after briefly taking third, his trajectory on the run to Turn 3 set him on a collision course with Perez.
And while this went down as a racing incident, the stewards found he "did move slightly towards a car that he had limited vision of".
Verdict: Hard graft undone late on.
Started: 20th (pits) Finished: 15th
Ocon's FP1 was wiped out by an MGU-H problem, with a fuel pump problem then eliminating him from FP3 before he had even set a flying lap.
It was therefore no surprise that he clipped the wall at Turn 4 in qualifying and ended up slowest.
Taking additional power unit components and a pitlane start was a logical move, but with a marathon stint on hards the only strategy available it was a long, difficult race.
Verdict: Car problems ruined his weekend.
Started: 16th Finished: 16th
Bottas didn't maximise qualifying nor the opportunity presented by Zhou playing towing buddy, thanks to Bottas locking up at Turn 5, costing him time (albeit probably not enough to have made Q2).
He struggled on the mediums in the first stint in the race and fell away, meaning a relatively early switch to hards and a tough run to the end.
Verdict: Unspectacular in a hopeless cause.
Started: 14th Finished: 13th
This was one of those weekends where there was nothing particularly wrong with Ricciardo's performance, but it just lacked the old edge.
He qualified decently, albeit with a small amount of time left on the table, then had a tricky race dealing with graining in his marathon stint on hards.
It added up to an anonymous race in a car that wasn't ever a points threat.
Verdict: Solid but no more.
Started: 13th Finished: 19th
Battled balance problems on Friday, but it didn't get better after Aston Martin reverted to the old floor specification on Saturday when Stroll was "off the pace and struggling for grip".
The decision to run an untested higher wing level in qualifying contributed to a difficult qualifying session, with a one-second deficit to Alonso.
After taking 12th at the start, Yuki Tsunoda turned in on Stroll at Turn 4, which meant a puncture and a pitstop. There was no way back from there and he eventually retired late on.
Verdict: A difficult weekend.
Started: 11th Finished: DNF
Tsunoda setting the 12th-fastest time in qualifying, two-tenths quicker than Ricciardo, which was a strong performance in a car that was only eighth-best in Baku.
That could perhaps have set him up to nick a point, but he turned in on Stroll on the opening lap and picked up a big hole in the sidepod that led to his retirement after he hobbled through the early laps.
Verdict: Genuine speed thwarted by lap-one clash.
Started: 12th Finished: 11th
Baku has never been a happy hunting ground for Hulkenberg and he had a tricky time in qualifying, struggling to find pace as the track improved.
The race went better and he held 10th late on, only to touch the wall at the entry to Turn 15.
Concerns about a puncture led to him losing time and he also ended up in the wrong mode having switched to anticipating a pitstop, which allowed Colapinto to pass.
He was also ambushed by Hamilton and Bearman after the yellow flag zone covering the Sainz/Perez clash, dropping him to 12th.
Verdict: Late errors ruined his points run.