Spanish GP Driver Ratings

Apologies for the delay in posting these ratings; they were in fact written pre-Monaco, but I haven’t been able to post them until now due to technical issues. There’s a few references to/semi-predictions for Monaco in there, so when reading you might want to forget that the Monaco race has actually happened. A bit like Lewis Hamilton really….

Vettel – 9

Close to perfect again. Missed out on pole for first time this season, but made up for it in race with great drive to take fourth win in five races. Withstood late race pressure from Hamilton well.

Webber – 6

Took pole after Vettel’s KERS problems – it would have been close without them. Somehow lost out to both McLarens in the race, and missed out on the podium in what appeared to be the quickest car in the field.

Hamilton – 9

Pipped Alonso and team mate Button to 3rd on grid with 0.035 seconds covering all three! Dropped behind meteoric Alonso at start, but recovered to run 2nd comfortably. Hounded Vettel in closing stages, but couldn’t find a way past.

Button – 7

Qualified 5th and made bad start. Recovered well to finish 3rd despite displaying feeble defence against Vettel early on. Martin Brundle proclaimed it as a brilliant drive, but the fact is he finished 35 seconds behind his team mate…

Alonso – 8

Great qualifying effort to pip Button, and even better start to take the lead. Showed just how good his qualifying lap had been by eventually dropping back to 5th, a full lap off the lead, after struggling on harder tyres.

Massa – 4

Nowhere near Alonso in qualifying or the race. Hard to say whether he underperformed, or was simply overshadowed by Alonso outperforming the car. Qualified 8th and retired after gearbox issues.

Rosberg – 6

7th in qualifying, but dropped behind Schumacher early in race. May well have been quicker than his team mate had he been able to get past, but the elder German refused to yield and Nico suffered DRS problems which left him 7th.

Schumacher – 7

Better. Only 10th on grid, but made a great start and robustly defended position from Rosberg thereafter. Finished 6th, but a long way behind the leaders. How well he goes in Monaco will be interesting.

Heidfeld – 9

Suffered fire in final practice and consequently missed qualifying. Starred in the race though by climbing to 8th, nearly catching the two Mercedes drivers – one more lap and he would have been past.

Petrov – 6

Good effort in qualifying to line up 6th despite minor gearbox fault. Lacklustre in the race, somehow falling behind team mate Heidfeld and both Saubers and failing to score a point.

Barrichello – 5

Disastrous qualifying session left him 19th after suffering gear selection problems. Made little progress in race, with KERS issues restricting him to 17th, comfortably ahead of Trulli’s Lotus but a lap away from the points.

Maldonado – 6

Much improved qualification to make Q3, and beat Schumacher to 9th. Once again didn’t perform well in the race though, and dropped to 15th. Nevertheless a confidence boost ahead of Monaco, where the Venezuelan has always gone well.

Sutil – 5

Outqualified by team mate and Kovalainen’s Lotus after gambling on hard tyre in Q2. Race went to plan but starting on prime tyres meant he remained behind Di Resta. Perhaps distracted by off-track events?

Di Resta – 6

Tyre gamble in Q2 left him 16th on grid. Solid race performance saw him 12th at the end. Did well to once again outperform the vastly more experienced Sutil for most of weekend.

Kobayashi – 8

Yet another great performance in the race after being outqualified by Perez and suffering a puncture on first lap. Drove brilliantly thereafter to finish in the top ten for the fifth time in five races.

Perez – 8

Did well on Saturday to outqualify Kobayashi. Ran a sensible, error free race and despite dropping behind Heidfeld late on he picked up his first F1 points (after Australia disqualification) with 9th.

Buemi – 6

A reasonable effort in a Toro Rosso which wasn’t quite quick enough for points. Just missed Q2 by two-tenths, and raced well enough, but dropped to 14th in race behind a number of other midfield runners.

Alguersuari – 5

Four tenths off Buemi in Q2, continuing recent run of being second best at Toro Rosso. 16th in race, last but one of the established runners (ahead of only Barrichello), suffering from high tyre wear.

Kovalainen – 7

Deservedly got through to Q2 and qualified excellent 15th. Not able to mix it with the established teams in the race though, and retired after an off which looked to be due to driver error.

Trulli – 6

Seems incapable of stretching the car to its limits, unlike Kovalainen. 18th on grid was reasonable, and drove a solid race without really threatening the midfield. Miles clear of the hapless Virgins and HRTs though.

Glock – 6

Qualified 20th, 1.2 secs ahead of team mate. Battled with Liuzzi for first part of race, and got past shortly before the Italian’s retirement. At least he was ahead of D’Ambrosio for the first time in a while.

D’Ambrosio – 5

His worst F1 display yet, but not a disaster. Outqualified by Glock and both HRTs and just two-tenths inside 107% limit. Raced behind Liuzzi until the Italian retired. Plugged away but unable to catch team mate.

Liuzzi – 7

Qualified a tenth ahead of his team mate. Race was going very well – the Italian ran ahead of both Virgins before being obliged to retire with gear selection trouble. A real shame.

Karthikeyan – 6

Qualified 22nd, ahead of D’Ambrosio; suffered excessive tyre wear and burns to his back from an ill-fitting seat in race, and finished 5 laps down and last. He must be really looking forward to tackling Monaco in the recalcitrant HRT…