Driver Ratings: 2017 Brazilian Grand Prix
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Now that Hamilton had put the exhaustive talk of a dwindling championship fight to bed, the paddock could at last refocus on the racing. And what a terrific weekend of action ensured.
A pole margin of less than half a tenth of a second; the newly crowned world champion in a high-speed crash on his first lap in qualifying; superb recovery drives from a duo of the grid’s most dynamic wheel-to-wheel racers and a win for Ferrari when they needed it most.
But even Hamilton’s heroic performance on Sunday could not steal the adulation from the undisputed star performer of the weekend. In his final race on home turf, Felipe Massa’s seventh place was a homage to his emotive victory at Interlagos in 2008; his final victory in Formula 1 (barring miracles in Abu Dhabi).
The Brazilian’s habit for being lifted by his home fans is uncanny; if he could only bring the same level of electricity and determination he brings to Interlagos to every track, perhaps Massa could have achieved much more in his career. As it stands, it was second beautifully emotional send-off for one of the paddock’s dearest friends.
Lewis Hamilton - 8.5
Even champions make mistakes. On paper, to finish off the podium in a weekend where he easily had the pace to score pole and the victory is a disappointment. And yet, with the title already in the bag, his uncharacteristic mistake in Q1 was little more than a gift to the fans.
A gift because it laid the foundations for one of the finest recovery drives of modern times. Emboldened by fresh power unit components and a free tyre choice, Hamilton was a dynamic, born-again kart racer and would finish just 5.5 seconds off the win. If anything, it showed just how subdued Lewis’ salvage effort had been in Mexico. Vettel might have gone from pits-to-podium in 2012, but that was a more attritional race and in much less aero-limited cars.
Valtteri Bottas - 6
Bottas’ explosive reaction to pole (arguably more explosive than his reaction to his first victory in Sochi) was a telling snapshot of his somewhat unravelling season. When Mercedes had looked comfortably ahead for much of the weekend, the Finn perhaps should not have been run so closely for pole by Vettel.
Whilst Hamilton’s car looked easily capable of victory – or at least before its appointment with the barriers in Q1 – Bottas could not loosen Vettel’s grip on victory after conceding track position on the first lap. It was unquestionably sobering for the polesitter to see his pitlane-starting team-mate less than three seconds from his gearbox at the flag. The winter cannot come soon enough for the Finn.
Daniel Ricciardo - 7
Having been the faster Red Bull in the short-runs on Friday, he lost his way with the tyre temperature window come qualifying, and again suffered a baffling Mexico-style session that put him well short of his team-mate. The Aussie’s habitual deficits to his team-mate on Saturdays in 2017 is starting to blunt his once eminent renown for single-lap pace.
Despite being hamstrung by a 10-place power unit penalty and suffering a puncture in the midst of a first corner sandwich, his weekend would come right thanks to a series of his seemingly eponymous brand of Dan-dare out-braking manoeuvres. Ricciardo’s out-braking heroism is truly becoming a postcard image for F1.
Max Verstappen - 8
An angry young Dutchman turned the radio waves blue and suffered a violent spin in a series of messy, uncompetitive practice sessions. Red Bull’s pace deficit in Brazil threatened to provoke Verstappen into overdriving, especially now that he had grown a taste for the top step.
He tidied things up for when it mattered and maximized the car’s potential in qualifying and the race. He burned through the tyres in the desperate hope to keep up with the frontrunners, but had to pit for a second time. Frustratingly, the Renault power deficit put pay to Max’s winning habit.
Sebastian Vettel - 9
There was a flavour of understandable relief in Vettel’s reaction to his first victory since the summer break; especially since the disappointing recent run of results have nonetheless showcased some fine skill from the German.
In qualifying, he put his car in contention for a pole for which it hadn’t looked worthy. Having “chickened-out” at the first corner of his final run, Sebastian’s failure to put all of his best sectors together cost him pole, but was probably also indicative of upper limit of the car’s capability. In the race, he was superb. An excellent start, perfectly managed tyre life and a clinical rebuff to Bottas’ attempted undercut stole a race win from under Mercedes’ nose.
Kimi Raikkonen - 7
There was a stronger backbone of pace to the third successive podium the Finn had inherited. Indeed, on a circuit where he has historically performed well, he had looked the faster Ferrari throughout much of practice, and would top the times in Q1. But there was a certain sense of inevitability to the way he fell back in Q2 and Q3; finishing finished two tenths off pole.
Raikkonen’s race pace on the super-soft was lacklustre, even coming under pressure from a frustrated Verstappen, but he would recover with a fine stint on the soft to finish less than five seconds behind his team-mate. And yet, on a circuit that he clearly enjoys, he perhaps should have been more of a factor.
Sergio Perez - 7.5
It was a somewhat inverted weekend for the Mexican with a terrific qualifying performance let down by a substandard showing in the race. Having been outqualified on four successive occasions by team-mate Ocon in recent races, Sergio desperately needed to ‘stop-the-rot’; he duly delivered unofficial tier-two pole whilst the Frenchman failed to make Q3.
Overwhelmed by Alonso and outmanoeuvred by Massa at the start; Perez would greet the flag in ninth when it could have been seventh.
Esteban Ocon - 5
A disappointing weekend for Ocon that revolved around small, critical margins: the seven hundredths that prevented him from going through to Q3 and the two inches that would have prevented him from being collected by Grosjean’s spinning Haas.
The Frenchman’s first retirement from a single seater race since 2014, and the first time he’s been outqualified by Perez since Singapore are nonetheless markers of the otherwise outstanding job Ocon has been doing.
Lance Stroll - 3
Stroll’s weekend rather reverted to the more ragged displays of earlier in the season. For a man and a team openly targeting improvements in qualifying, a final practice session largely lost to a gearbox fault was not ideal. And yet, there was free time on the table in his scruffy Q1 laps that left more than a second slower than Massa and unable to progress through to Q2.
His race unravelled with a nightmare getaway, and whilst he looked to have more pace which the Haas of Grosjean, a severe lock-up would lead to a delamination and the effective end of his competitive prospects. A messy weekend from the Canadian.
Felipe Massa - 10
Massa’s emotional final home race was in danger of being derailed by a needless tit-for-tat with Sainz that had its roots in some reciprocal blocking in FP2. Ultimately, a similar batch of exchanges in Q3 would curtail the terrific potential the Brazilian had been promising.
But come the race, Massa would make amends with a virtuoso start to gain three places, and remained utterly imperious in his defence against the Spaniard swarming around his rear-wing. 2016’s heart-wrenching pitlane parade may have been the dress-rehearsal; for 2017 Massa not only produced his best drive of the season, but perhaps his best performance for several years. Parabéns, Felipe.
Stoffel Vandoorne - 5.5
Aerodynamic parity with Alonso could not overcome the Spaniard’s natural affinity with the technically-demanding Interlagos circuit. Whilst Fernando was vying for the honours of ‘best-of-the-rest’, tyre temperature woes prevented Vandoorne from commandeering a place in Q3.
Victim of a Ricciardo-Magnussen sandwich at Turn 3, we were denied any further comparisons between the McLaren drivers – but this was the third race in a row where the Belgian’s pace had fallen well short of his team-mate in a second half of the season where he has otherwise been building good momentum.
Fernando Alonso - 9
A typically formidable performance from Alonso. He had been trading blows with midfield frontrunners all weekend, and whilst he topped the midfield battle in Q2, a stellar lap from Perez denied Fernando that unofficial tier-two pole.
He would overwhelm Perez off the line, but fell afoul of Massa’s Mercedes power unit on the restart. He clearly had the pace to finish seventh, but it is difficult to see how he could have got there. To be so competitive on such a power-sensitive circuit is a marker of McLaren’s chassis improvements and the Spaniard’s prowess at the wheel.
Pierre Gasly - 7.5
Suffering his second consecutive weekend marred by unreliability, the Frenchman could be forgiven for wanting some consistent mileage above all else. His qualifying was impaired by his disrupted practice and a race-focused setup in anticipation of a power unit penalty, but still, he probably should not have been slower than Wehrlein.
A terrific start put him in the top ten after the first lap, but he would ultimately lament Renault’s power unit constraints and the tyre degradation caused by his trimmed-out setup. A good job in difficult circumstances.
Brendon Hartley - 7
Be it the all too familiar power unit woes, paddock political discord, an unplugged radio, being blocked by the slow-starting Stroll, or the embarrassment of being stranded out on the circuit, unable to return to the paddock, following an engine failure; the Kiwi was comprehensively put through the mill in Brazil.
Amid this malaise, to manage to get into Q2 was a solid effort; especially given the race-focus mandated by Hartley’s penalty-laden car. The increasingly habitual power unit failure put pay to any further evaluation of Brendon’s efforts in the race.
Romain Grosjean - 5
Grosjean’s lap to claim twelfth in qualifying was a very accomplished performance, especially given that Interlagos is the kind of bumpy circuit where Haas’ chassis imbalances have usually been historically accentuated.
To go wheel-to-wheel through one of the fastest corners on the track on the first lap was arguably less than smart, and the ham-fisted collision that resulted unquestionably could have been avoided; but it probably wasn’t worth such a hefty penalty. Dreadful race pace that saw Romain struggle to keep pace with the Saubers curtailed yet another disappointing weekend for the Frenchman.
Kevin Magnussen - 4
Magnussen’s season of peaks and troughs continues, as does his uncanny spatial awareness vice. Despite closely matching his team-mate’s pace for much of the weekend, virulent oversteer put him well short of Grosjean’s tremendous final run in Q2.
A solid start might have been the foundations of a competitive race, but a clumsy failure to afford enough space at Turn 3 brought the curtain down on a poor weekend. If the pattern continues, we can expect fine things from Kevin in Abu Dhabi.
Nico Hulkenberg - 9
Allowing the meteoric Massa past off the line was perhaps the only dropped stitch in an otherwise impressive weekend from Hulkenberg. The German’s historic relish for Interlagos saw him exact a comfortable margin over Sainz for much of the weekend, but couldn’t see him outpace Perez and Alonso on Saturday.
Moreover, the ultimate potential of his weekend was probably constrained by the reliability parameters imposed by Renault. It was nonetheless a doubtless relief for Nico to score his first points since Spa.
Carlos Sainz Jr - 6
Three races into his Renault career and the harsh reality of acclimatizing to an entirely new team is perhaps biting. He was at least closer to his team-mate’s pace than in Mexico, but that critical deficit to Nico would have been the difference of not making Q3 had Hamilton not crashed.
His race was solid, if unspectacular. His auspicious start to his Renault career nonetheless promises an assault on Hulkenberg’s firm standing as team leader as one of the key subplots of 2018.
Marcus Ericsson - 6.5
The Swede has managed an impressive vane of form in recent races; out-qualifying team-mate Wehrlein on three successive occasions. An impressive final stint on the super-softs put him ahead of the German, but only because of an overambitious ploy to run an effective non-stop strategy on Wehrlein’s car.
Having not suffered the misfortune of conceding his car to Leclerc he should not have been two tenths slower than Pascal in qualifying, but redeemed himself with a commendable effort on Sunday.
Pascal Wehrlein - 7
For a man whose F1 career is in doubt, to be on the cusp of seeding through to Q2, ahead of Gasly and team-mate Ericsson, was an excellent performance. You could argue a modicum of off-track strain had translated into his recent results famine versus Ericsson.
Mercedes’ protege would have finished ahead of his team-mate on Sunday too, but for an overly optimistic attempt to do 70-laps on the soft tyre. A promising race for Wehrlein, but one senses the writing is already on the wall for the German.