Lewis Hamilton back in top spot as perfect F1 race win rewarded

It's been a while, but Lewis Hamilton is firmly back on top of the world after that Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix.

Not only did Hamilton end a 686-day wait for another race victory, the 41-year-old also catapulted to the top of F1's official Power Rankings.

It was a spectacular day in Barcelona for the seven-time world champion as he showed that he is truly back in 2026 by claiming his first victory for Ferrari.

The Scuderia turned up in Spain with a car ready to challenge Mercedes and a driver fully returned to his former glories after a miserable first year in Italy in 2025.

Hamilton repelled the challenges of Mercedes pair George Russell and Kimi Antonelli to win comfortably, a shocking development after the Silver Arrows had dominated the first six races of the new season.

READ MORE: Sky F1 pundit says Lewis Hamilton has done at Ferrari what Charles Leclerc failed to do

Hamilton tops F1 Power Rankings

It was not just F1 fans worldwide gushing about the rejuvenated Hamilton's super show, it was the official Power Ranking judges too. The five-strong panel awarded Lewis a perfect 10 score for his first ever victory in red.

After Hamilton we had four drivers all tied for second spot with an 8.3 score in the rankings for Barcelona - Mercedes pair Russell and Antonelli, third-place finisher Lando Norris (McLaren) and Alpine's in-form Pierre Gasly.

Four-time world champion Max Verstappen (8.0) was next after his fourth-place finish for Red Bull, with the top 10 being completed by Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson, Audi's Nico Hulkenberg, Alpine's Franco Colapinto and Lawson's team-mate Arvid Lindblad.

The full table of scores looked like this once all judges ratings were in:

Hamilton win means we could have an F1 title race

Events in Barcelona also breathed new life into the actual F1 title race, with Hamilton's win and Antonelli's DNF closing the gap at the top of the table to 41 points.

The full Drivers' standings heading to next weekend's Austrian Grand Prix are as follows:

READ MORE: Verstappen jets in to the UK as Red Bull exit rumours swirl

READ MORE: Sky F1 star reveals 'horrific' hate for Max Verstappen question

Written by

Graham Shaw - Consultant Editor

Digital sports leader with 30 years of senior level experience running global brands. Built sportinglife.com to be a behemoth in the UK as well as being in charge of the Planet Sport network of sites including planetf1.com, football365.com, teamtalk.com and planetrugby.com. Then grew goal.com to be the world's biggest soccer website in 18 languages and 37 territories. Was GM of Portals for Perform Group (now DAZN) with overall responsibility for sportingnews.com, spox.de and voetbalzone.nl.

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