DIVEBOMB Power Rankings - June 2025
- DIVEBOMB Motorsport
- 2 days ago
- 8 min read
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 10 choices for the month of June.
1st - No.83 AF Corse Ferrari (WEC)
Everyone expected a Ferrari to win Le Mans, but no one expected it to be a yellow one. Yifei Ye, Robert Kubica and Phillip Hanson were almost flawless for 24 hours of mostly green flag racing.
13th on the grid, and the lowest Ferrari. Before the race you can imagine hopes weren’t as high as they could be, with Cadillac looking to be the class of the field after qualifying. But just a few hours into the race, all three 499Ps worked their way to the front of the field, and even ran 1-2-3 for a period.
Both of the factory cars caused their own issues, spins in pit entry, penalties and at points struggling for pace in the wake of the No.83. Including a monster 3+ hour stint from a tired Kubica to finish out the race, fending off the No.6 Porsche, the crew were almost flawless. They won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in brilliant fashion, earning the top spot on this month's rankings.
2nd - Kyle Kirkwood (IndyCar)
It may have been a long time coming, but June marked the month that Kyle Kirkwood’s “street course merchant” title could finally be a thing of the past, as he claimed two wins during the month, including his first on an oval
Kirkwood’s month started off in usual fashion, that being victory on a narrow street circuit as he won in Detroit for the first time in his career with yet another assured performance when out front. Street circuits have always been Kirkwood’s forte,which made his run to victory at Gateway next time out a true indication of the development arc that Kirkwood has made this season.
2025 has really been the Álex Palou show, but Kirkwood remains the only driver who can lay a glove on the Spaniard’s dominant form. His month ended with a fourth place at Road America, in what has been the best stretch of his IndyCar career.
3rd - Denny Hamlin (NASCAR)
Love him or hate him, this man might be one of the best to do it in the stock car racing scene. Fresh off one of the worst months in his NASCAR career, where he suffered two DNFs in the month of May, he bounced back gracefully.
Kicking off the month of June with a third place finish in Nashville, he went into Michigan not knowing if he was going to race, since his fiancée was about to give birth to his third child. However, Hamlin participated in the race and powered through for his first win since Darlington in April.
He then missed Mexico City for the birth of his child, but came back in Pocono and secured yet another top-three finish, behind teammate Chase Briscoe who secured his first win of the season. Albeit closing off the month on a disappointing DNF in Atlanta, that stretch of performances definitely earned him a podium place on this power rankings.
4th - Ott Tänak (WRC)
Coming off the back of an unfortunate loss at the end of May in Portugal, Ott Tänak was on a mission to take his first rally victory of 2025.
Despite the fact Tänak “didn’t feel at ease with the car all weekend” while in the Rally Sardegna (the first of the two June Rallies), Tänak took six stage wins, leaving him just eight seconds behind the winner, Sébastian Ogier.
It was strong consistency across the weekend that led him to this result, as he kept his nose clean while others couldn’t. The only trouble Tänak found himself in was on Friday when he picked up a puncture and technical problems - without which he could have won the Rally.
The second of the two Rallies in June took place in Greece. Having won seven stages already, Tänak had a sizable lead as he approached the conclusion of the Rally.
The worst that could happen, did happen in the final stage, as his Hyundai i20N’s gearbox failed. Tänak limped to the end, fortunately still winning by a staggering half minute despite his dramas.
Tänak now sits third place in the Drivers Championship, 12 points back from Championship leader - Elfyn Evans. Tänak is 42 points clear of the next best Hyundai driver, and he will continue to be the Toyota drivers’ biggest rival for the remainder of the season.
5th - No.98 ROWE BMW (NLS/N24)
BMW and Rowe Racing’s performance at the Nürburgring was a historic show of resilience, which saw them going 19th to first in 24 hours.
The No.98 Rowe Racing was the only BMW M4 GT3 car entered into the 2025 version of the Nürburgring 24 Hours, due to conflicts with other series. This reduced their chances of victory, as they had no back up if the No.98 suffered issues.
To worsen their chances further, the No.98 failed to make Top Qualifying, meaning it started the race from 19th place. Augusto Farfus, Jesse Krohn, Raffaele Marciello and Kelvin van der Linde fought throughout the race to climb up the field.
By the time the sun was rising, the No.911 Manthey EMA “Grello” Porsche was in first place, with a lead of a minute ahead of the No.98 BMW. Although the Porsche had seemed dominant for the first three quarters of the race, the BMW started to reel Porsche towards it.
After a few hours of chasing, the No.98 was within a second of the No.911, causing the No.911 to mistakenly try overtaking a backmarker, making contact, and putting the backmarker out the race. A 100 second penalty was added to the No.911’s race, meaning when they crossed the line, it was the No.98 BMW that took victory.
6th - Oscar Piastri (F1)
June was a very productive month for Formula One’s championship leader as he gained a handful of points over nearest challenger Lando Norris.
A commanding victory in Spain was somewhat overshadowed by Max Verstappen’s antics further behind, but Piastri was front and centre of attention in Canada as a collision with teammate Norris grabbed the headlines.
The coming together between the pair was in no way the Australian’s fault, with Norris accepting full responsibility for the incident immediately. The crash, which forced the Briton to retire from the race, helped to feed into a season-long narrative that the Australian had greater maturity and racecraft than his teammate and rival, and firmly established him as favourite for this year’s title.
Norris has responded well since then, however, with victories in both Austria and Britain to reignite his title charge. Piastri needs to get back on the top step soon to reassert his authority.
7th - Santino Ferrucci (IndyCar)
After what had been a greatly encouraging 2024 season for Santino Ferrucci and AJ Foyt Racing, there was no hiding how disappointing his start to 2025 had been. However, the opportunity for Ferrucci to gel with his No.14 crew throughout the ‘Month of May’ was what was needed to turn the team’s fortunes around with Ferrucci in top form in June.
The month started off with Ferrucci’s maiden podium on a road/street course, as a conveniently-timed caution for the American in Detroit elevated him into podium contention, as Ferrucci held off the fast chargers to claim second. His oval excellence would come to the forefront again in Gateway as he claimed another top five finish. He would achieve his fourth consecutive top five finish at Road America, as he stood on the final step of the podium after executing the unlikeliest of late-race fuel saves.
Whether he needed to be aggressive or whether he needed to fuel save, Ferrucci could do it all to the highest level throughout June. It may not have been the start to the season we were expecting, but Ferrucci’s form has turned his season on its head.
8th - No.63 GRT Lamborghini (GTWC EU)
Mirko Bortolotti, Luca Engstler, and Jordan Pepper started P13 for the 24 Hours of Spa, not ideal for the Pro crew. However during the race they slowly and quietly worked their way up the pack, leading as dawn broke.
They swapped the lead many times with the No.998 BMW through pit stops, but the ROWE car eventually fell out of contention for the win. Towards the end of the race, the No.96 Rutronik Porsche worked their way up to second, and were catching the GRT crew for the lead.
Ultimately, Bortolotti fended off the challenge from Sven Müller and took the chequered flag to win the 24 Hours of Spa for Lamborghini and the Grasser Racing Team.
9th - Dan Ticktum (Formula E)
Among the myriad list of Formula E winners in 2025, it was only fitting for the newest of these winners to be Dan Ticktum. More often, the animated character on and off the track, Ticktum’s persistence to a transitioning Cupra Kiro team has rewarded a rich run of form since the start of May.
Yet, it wouldn’t be until the Jakarta E-Prix weekend when the Londoner finally saw the chequered flag as a race winner, taking advantage of the chaos unfolding around him.
Starting fifth on the road, Ticktum managed to get up into fourth, making up a position at the expense of Nick Cassidy’s Jaguar. He ran behind McLaren’s Taylor Barnard for most of the race, the duo adrift of the leading pair of Mahindra’s Nyck de Vries and Andretti’s Jake Dennis.
Around a dusty Jakarta street circuit where going off line would punish drivers heavily, and the attack mode activation zone on the outside of turn 16 caught drivers out, the best route would be to stay on the racing line, and utilise the attack mode efficiently to make overtakes.
The leading duo of Nyck de Vries and Jake Dennis would come to blows on the main straight, littering the entry to Turn 1 with debris and necessitating a safety car. While the Dutchman would be slapped a ten-second penalty, he wouldn’t finish the race, stopping off at the exit of Turn 7. Dennis, meanwhile, slipped down the order after technical issues hindered him at the end of the Full Course Yellow later in the race.
With Barnard getting it crossed up as he took attack mode, Ticktum emerged as the victory favourite. The Briton fended off de Vries’ teammate Edoardo Mortara in a triumphant run to the flag, marking his and Cupra Kiro’s maiden Formula E victory, and in DIVEBOMB’s Power Rankings for June.
10th - Chase Elliot (NASCAR)
Up to this point of the season, Chase Elliott has yet to acquire a DNF or a finish below top-20. That type of consistency probably should’ve earned him a spot on one of the power rankings earlier in the season, but alas, here we are. Since 2022, the knock on Elliott is that he has lost his winning edge. From winning multiple races per year, he struggled mightily in 2023 following his injury, and 2024 was another year filled with oh-so-close to victory lane moments.
This year was no different, but he is turning the tides around with his performances in the month of June. Kicking off with two consecutive top-fifteen finishes in Nashville and Michigan, Elliott squeezed out a top-three finish in Mexico City in rainy conditions, and took a respectable fifth place finish at the tricky triangle.
His highlight of the year so far, however, came from Atlanta. Despite being second best for the most part in the early stages, Elliott slowly took control towards the end of the race, and didn’t have much issues as he cruised to his first victory since Texas 2024.
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