Divebomb Power Rankings - April 2025
- DIVEBOMB Motorsport
- May 1
- 9 min read
Written by DIVEBOMB Power Rankings Team
Welcome to DIVEBOMB's Power Rankings, a popular segment from our team which ranks the best motorsport performances of the month, taking machinery out of the equation. Here are DIVEBOMB's ten choices for the month of April...
1st - Oscar Piastri (Formula One)
The hype around the prodigious talent of Oscar Piastri has rightly risen to new heights throughout April, as the remarkable young Australian delivered a string of performances to catapult himself into the lead of the World Drivers’ Championship for the first time.
The presumed script heading into 2025 saw a strong season for constructors’ champions McLaren, with Lando Norris edging out his less experienced teammate over the course of a season. Five races into the 2025 Formula One season, however, and it is Piastri who has demonstrated steely nerve and ruthless consistency of a World Champion.
After a topsy-turvy March, with a mistake in Australia leaving him to fight for minor points followed by a dominant victory in China, Piastri seriously began to turn the screw on his nearest challengers in April.
Across three races, the Australian delivered two victories in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, which were notable for different reasons. Bahrain demonstrated his relentless speed as he blasted off into the distance, while he delivered a very measured performance in Jeddah to keep Max Verstappen at arm’s length.
Throw in a third placed finish in Japan and Piastri collected 60 points over the month to become the first Australian to lead the World Championship since 2010. If he continues, he could yet be the first World Champion from Down Under since 1980.
2nd - No.51 Ferrari AF Corse (WEC - Hypercar)
To say Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi had a dominant performance at the 6 Hours of Imola might be somewhat of an understatement.
On Saturday afternoon, Antonio Giovinazzi put in a stunning lap to put the car on pole position by seven tenths of a second, ahead of the No.83 Ferrari. The nearest non-Ferrari was almost a second slower than the Italian.
After a clean start, Calado, Pier Guidi and Giovinazzi ran a clean race, with no mistakes. They took a dominant victory on home ground, in an otherwise extremely competitive Hypercar field — with Toyota, BMW, Alpine and Porsche all in contention for the podium spots alongside the Ferraris.
The trio led in their Ferrari 499P for the majority of the race, ceding the lead only during pit stops, or during a brief period to the No.6 Porsche of Laurens Vanthoor, who was quickly dispatched.
The No.51 crew go into the third round of the championship in Spa, looking to extend their 11 point championship lead.
3rd - Kalle Rovanperä (WRC)
Kalle Rovanperä had a slow start to the WRC season, unable to finish on the podium in the first three rallies, and only winning five stages. While pundits raised doubts over the two-time-champion’s commitment to rallying, Rovanperä proved them wrong in the Rally Islas Canarias. The only word that can describe the Finnish driver's performance is ‘dominant’.
Rovanperä started the three-day rally well, winning all six of the stages on the opening day. His momentum continued into the second day, winning the first six of seven stages. His winning streak came to an end on the closing stage of the day: SS13, a special stage which saw drivers doing donuts in a basketball arena.
The winning continued for Rovanperä on the final day, where he won three of the five stages. The fact his “least successful” day was one where he won 60% of stages demonstrates his performance in the Canary Islands. Ending the rally just shy of 50 seconds ahead of second place, Rovanperä jumped to second in the championship standings.
Rovanperä's unrivalled pace earned him the nickname: ‘Crazy little Fin’ from his teammate - and eight-time WRC World Champion - Sébastian Ogier. Realising the overall win was out of reach, Ogier’s target was to push in every stage just to beat the Fin in one of them. From the 18 stages run, Ogier failed to beat Rovanperä in 15 of them.
4th - Kyle Kirkwood (IndyCar)
It was Álex Palou's brilliance that vaulted him on top of the DIVEBOMB Power Rankings in March, and we all knew that it would have to take something quite brilliant to stop the Spaniard when the series rolled into Long Beach in April, and Kyle Kirkwood certainly came up with the goods.
The American took a dominant pole by two tenths and not once looked back from that point. Kirkwood was assured all day long at Long Beach, and had the race lead or the net race lead throughout the entirety of the 90 laps. Despite some mid-race pressure from Palou, Kirkwood's position looked irremovable, and he comfortably came home for his first career victory since Nashville in 2023.
It was a drive reminiscent of his maiden career victory in Long Beach where the American looked like a natural at the front of the field. It's only for others equal brilliance that he isn't higher up on this months rankings, as Kirkwood's and the series' attention now looks forward to May and the 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500.
5th - Sébastien Buemi (WEC - Hypercar)
Sébastien Buemi took to the wheel of the No.8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Hypercar at the 6 Hours of Imola alongside Brendan Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa, but Buemi stood out from the trio.
They started in fourth place, just ahead of the sister No.7 car. Early on in the race they fought with each other and the No.15 BMW over third place, behind the pair of leading Ferraris.
However disaster would strike for the team, as they received a drive-through penalty for a FCY (Full-Course Yellow) infringement. This put the car back in 12th, with Hirakawa fighting the Peugeots and Cadillacs. Soon however he would be caught by the charging No.50 Ferrari, just before the scheduled pit stops.
Buemi hopped into the Toyota, with Antonio Fuoco at the wheel of the Ferrari. With a clear pace advantage, Fuoco tried everything to get past the Toyota, but Buemi gave us a masterclass in defensive driving. Fuoco eventually got too eager and went off the track and got a puncture, after trying to get best Buemi for almost 45 minutes.
The Swiss driver recovered the No.8 to fifth at the end, a good result for a race almost ruined by a penalty. This defensive showing gave us plenty of reason to have Buemi stand alone in 5th on our list for April.
6th - Kyle Larson (NASCAR)
Kyle Larson did not have the best start to the month, with a 37th place finish in Darlington. He was taken out on lap 122, netting him a single point out of the race. However, he bounced back big time in Bristol.
In the Bristol weekend, Larson started off with a second place finish in the Trucks Series, coming just short of Chandler Smith. Then, the 32-year-old headed to the Xfinity Series, started from pole and dominated the race, leading 277 laps out of the 300 laps in the race.
Then, into the main event, Larson posted yet another dominating showing, leading 411 laps out of the 500 laps in the race. He swept the stages, taking home the maximum 60 points from the weekend, moving back into the top five of the championship standings.
In Talladega, Larson was able to secure a stage one win for yet another stage point, having started the race from 25th place. He found a second place finish in the second stage, while completing the race with a second place finish, taking home 54 points on the weekend to move up to second place in the championship standings.
The strong showing of resiliency to bounce back from a brutal showing in Darlington, while finding success in a superspeedway, where Larson has struggled at times is the reason Larson made our list for April.
7th - Max Verstappen (Formula One)
2025 is proving to be a strange old season for Max Verstappen. True to form at the back end of 2024, his car is no longer the fastest on the grid, although it is clearly not as far off the pace as the Red Bull camp would have you think, at least at the hands of the Dutchman.
It hasn’t been a faultless season from Verstappen either, although it has not been far off. He has arguably extracted the maximum number of points from every race weekend so far, including a stellar lights-to-flag victory in Japan.
However, his antics in Jeddah, firstly at the start of the race and later in the paddock several hours later, were reminiscent of occasions in late 2021 and in Hungary and Mexico in 2024 when his temper arguably got the better of him.
Compared to the almost infallible Piastri (who himself appeared uncharacteristically on edge in Jeddah), this could yet prove to be a weakness for Verstappen in this year’s title battle.
One thing that remains absolutely crystal clear, though, as rumours swirl around the Dutchman’s future, is that Red Bull will continue to fight tooth and nail to secure him a fifth World Championship. If all parties keep pulling in the same direction, Verstappen will remain in the title fight until the bitter end.
8th - Pascal Wehrlein (Formula E)
Few would have pitted Porsche's Pascal Wehrlein to win the Miami E-Prix from ninth on the grid, given the competition ahead for the German racer. But such was the series of events, it allowed Wehrlein to capitalise on a late red flag period to snatch a victory heading teammate António Félix da Costa's way in Miami.
Starting from the fifth row, Wehrlein faced a stern challenge ahead, with the likes of Nissan's Norman Nato, Mahindra's Nyck de Vries, and teammate da Costa and Andretti's Jake Dennis qualifying ahead.
The Porsche man initially kept his nose clean, before utilising four minutes of attack mode to move up towards the front of the grid, as the race progressed.
While da Costa and Mahindra's Edoardo Mortara took their final hit of attack mode for six minutes, the ill-timed red flag hurt their chances at victory, with Wehrlein now looking the favourite for victory instead.
Taking his four minutes of attack mode as the race restarted, Wehrlein coasted past da Costa, before being sensible in a battle with Nato in a battle for first on the road. With the Nissan man demoted to sixth for not using his full quota of attack mode, Wehrlein earned his first win of the year.
A special victory catapulting Wehrlein five spots up the standings, it's one that earns a spot on our top ten in DIVEBOMB's Power Rankings for April.
9th - No.92 Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche (WEC - LMGT3)
Most of the time in any form of motorsports, the main stories come from dramatic fights through the field, with aggressive overtakes and close calls. But that wasn't the case for Ryan Hardwick, Ricciardo Pera and Richard Lietz, who managed to take victory in the LMGT3 class, simply by staying out of trouble.
Ricciardo Pera put in a lap good enough to put the car a respectable seventh on the grid in qualifying. The trio had a decent start to the race, battling with one of the Ford's early on.
From then on they had a relatively quiet race, with no major incidents at the front. The front of the race was a battle between the No.46 BMW and No.21 Ferrari, which ended in tears when Valentino Rossi went for an opportunistic move into the final corner, sending the Ferrari off track and into the wall.
The ensuing drive-through penalty for the No.46 left the No.92 in first place, with just 90 minutes remaining. Late in the race Kelvin Van Der Linde in the No.46 went on a charge from ninth, all the way up to second and the back of Richard Lietz in the dying laps of the race.
Lietz however, did just enough to keep the WRT BMW behind, and win the 6 Hours of Imola in the LMGT3 class.
10th - Tadasuke Makino (Super Formula)
Last season at Motegi, Tadasuke Makino won the race but only after his teammate, Kakunoshin Ohta, retired from the lead. The worthiness of his win was brought into question, and even he doubted if he was worthy of that win. However, round 3 of Super Formula at Motegi erased all doubts on whether he deserved that win.
He got pole by a little more than a tenth over Ohta in second. The race was similar to qualifying; he held the lead and opted for an unusual strategy, which worked out. He controlled the pace at the front for pretty much the entire race and this time, won the race at Motegi ahead of his teammate, purely on merit.
Makino qualified third for round four. The race was opposite to what happened in round three, with his teammate being the favourite for the win from the get-go.
However, despite having an inferior strategy, he managed to make the most of it, pull off a few impressive overtakes, and use his wits to give himself the best shot at the win. He did end up second, behind his teammate, but it was a good race from him, all things considered.
He is now second in the championship, just one point behind Kakunoshin Ohta.
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