Driver Ratings: 2018 Chinese Grand Prix
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Formula 1 was at its enthralling best as the Chinese Grand Prix delivered box office action and an unexpected winner to blow the championship battle wide open.
Daniel Ricciardo demonstrated his supreme race craft after Red Bull rolled the dice by making a second pitstop during a mid-race safety car. While Ferrari and Mercedes had committed to the one-stop approach, Ricciardo and team-mate Max Verstappen were equipped with fresh soft tyres at the restart.
Delivering “wicked pace” in the 10 laps that immediately followed, Ricciardo scythed his way through the field. Textbook overtakes at the Turn 14 hairpin on Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton were followed by a DRS cruise to dispatch Sebastian Vettel. A grand finale was then delivered in the form of a decisive lunge to the inside of race-leader Valtteri Bottas at Turn 6.
Ricciardo’s sixth career victory was his finest yet. He was followed home by Bottas in second place and Raikkonen in third. Championship leader Vettel limped across the line in eighth after a clash with an over-ambitious Verstappen at the apex of Turn 14.
The 2018 Chinese GP will live long in the memory of F1 fans. Here’s how we rate the 20 drivers who played a part in this modern classic.
Daniel Ricciardo - 10
Qualified – 6th
Finished – 1st
The Chinese GP was a sensationally entertaining spectacle – just the kind of race which Ricciardo has a habit of winning. Emerging from the pitlane in sixth after Red Bull decided to pit for fresh soft tyres during the lap 32 safety car, Ricciardo demonstrated supreme skill to scythe through the field. It took him just 10 laps to go from sixth to first – underlining why he is considered the grid’s best racer in the process.
Ricciardo nearly failed to qualify on Saturday after a turbo failure in the final practice session left his mechanics needing to install a fresh power unit between sessions. A task that the team had not achieved in under three hours had to be done in two for Ricciardo to be ready for qualifying. A 10 out of 10 performance from Ricciardo’s mechanics should not go unnoticed as but for their superb work under pressure, he would have started the race on the back of the grid.
Valtteri Bottas - 9
Qualified – 3rd
Finished – 2nd
For the second consecutive week, Bottas should have won the race. Unlike in Bahrain, however, defeat in China was not attributable to his own shortfalls.
Bottas out-qualified team-mate Lewis Hamilton for the second time in a row. Starting third, another good launch propelled him ahead of Kimi Raikkonen and into second. When the pit window arrived, an excellent pitstop from Mercedes coupled with a blistering outlap from Bottas meant that he jumped race-leader Sebastian Vettel in the pits to take the race lead.
Barring the safety car intervention, Bottas was on course for a fourth career win and through no fault of his own, ended another Sunday with 18 points in his pocket but with disappointment etched on his face.
Kimi Raikkonen - 7
Qualified – 2nd
Finished – 3rd
The resurgence of Raikkonen continued in China with another solid weekend. Pole position was cruelly snatched away by from him by Vettel in qualifying. Raikkonen missed out by 0.087 seconds, with his team-mate making up that margin in the last corner of the lap. His efforts did, at least, ensure that Ferrari achieved its first back-to-back front-row lockouts since 2006.
Lap one was less than impressive from Raikkonen – a driver who has not made up any places at the start of a race in over a year. Vettel was aggressive in his defence of the lead into Turn 1, but Raikkonen was made to look decidedly average by Verstappen, who cruised around the outside at the hairpin of Turn 6.
Having been compromised by his own team with a strategy intended to help Vettel’s cause against Bottas, Raikkonen was another beneficiary of the safety car. He managed to challenge Bottas in the closing stages but unlike Ricciardo, failed to make a decisive lunge to seize second.
Lewis Hamilton - 5
Qualified – 4th
Finished – 4th
It is difficult to recall a qualifying session in which Hamilton has been as anonymous as he was on Saturday in China. One lap to top the Q2 segment on the soft tyre suggested that he had finally found some pace, but then he suffered a difficult Q3 to qualify fourth behind Bottas.
Poor car balance on Saturday translated to Sunday. Hamilton was overtaken by Verstappen at Turn 2 on the opening lap and never looked likely to recover the position. He was around 0.5s adrift of Bottas’ pace during the first stint. On a decidedly difficult weekend, Vettel’s tangle with Verstappen and subsequent eighth place finish has meant that the reigning champion has slashed Vettel’s points advantage in half, therefore making it a well-timed off-weekend.
Max Verstappen - 5
Qualified – 5th
Finished – 5th
Flashes of brilliance soured by moments of madness, Verstappen is often an “all-or-nothing” driver and that trait was at its most obvious here. First out-qualifying Ricciardo, Verstappen was then supreme on the opening lap. He dispatched Hamilton with ease and danced around the outside of Raikkonen at the hairpin of Turn 6 as though the Ferrari was standing still.
Then came the madness. Verstappen’s impatience when battling Hamilton blunted his pursuit of victory. When attempting to pass Hamilton on the outside of the high-speed Turn 7, his Red Bull ran out of grip and the tarmac run-off was required. He lost a place to Ricciardo in the process.
Verstappen paid a bigger price when he attempted an equally unlikely move on Vettel at Turn 14, making contact with the Ferrari and pitching them both into a spin. His resultant 10-second time penalty was deserved.
The 2018 Chinese GP was the one that got away from Verstappen. He had the same tools but lacked the same talent as Ricciardo on the day.
Nico Hulkenberg - 9
Qualified – 7th
Finished – 6th
In what is F1’s most competitive midfield battle in years, Hulkenberg is proving to be Renault’s ace card. He qualified in a sixth consecutive seventh place and nearly managed to leapfrog Ricciardo at the start. Settling into a rhythm, Hulkenberg extended a gap over his team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr, having navigated the traffic quicker after their first pitstops.
Having stopped for a second time during the safety car, Hulkenberg managed to keep within touching distance of the leading six cars in the final stint. He was rewarded for his strong pace, passing Vettel in opportunistic fashion when the four-time champion was still recovering from the contact with Verstappen. Sixth place a suitable reward for a driver who continues to be the class of the midfield.
Fernando Alonso - 8
Qualified – 13th
Finished – 7th
A typically determined drive allowed Alonso to defy the performance of his McLaren to bag a solid seventh place – his third points finish in the three races so far in 2018. Recovering from a disappointing 13th on the grid, Alonso faced on-track skirmishes with the Haas pair of Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen, as well as a duel with Sainz. In all three battles Alonso prevailed. A feisty move on Vettel on the penultimate lap was noted by the stewards for its aggression.
He was determined to maximise the result and seventh was the best he could conjure on a weekend in which he was forced to carry the team.
Sebastian Vettel - 8
Qualified – 1st
Finished – 8th
Pole position and leading the race with an aggressive but effective squeeze on Raikkonen at the start, Vettel made just one critical mistake. Ferrari failed to seize the strategic high-ground, allowing Mercedes to pit Bottas before Vettel had made his one and only planned stop. Vettel had built what should have been a comfortable advantage in order to protect against this, but the combination of a poor in-lap from Vettel and blistering out-lap from Bottas meant that he was undercut and conceded the lead. Had Vettel retained first after the pitstop, he could well have stood on the second step of the podium in place of Bottas, as he would have been clear of Verstappen.
The collision was unfortunate and effectively cost Vettel what would have likely been fourth place, (assuming that the Red Bull would have eventually made the move cleanly). The resultant damage to the floor was what cost Vettel in the closing laps as he slipped to an eventual eighth place.
Carlos Sainz Jr - 7
Qualified – 9th
Finished – 9th
Sainz’s ninth place finish appears underwhelming compared with his team-mate’s sixth spot, but in a race heavily compromised by traffic, points are at least a positive. Emerging from the pits behind Hulkenberg, Sainz was comparatively inefficient in clearing the cars which had yet to pit, losing time to his team-mate and effectively ending their inter-team battle prematurely. Sainz also suffered higher tyre degradation as a result of not being in clean air.
He closed to within touching distance of the limping Vettel to challenge for eighth on the final lap. Sainz was close to the Ferrari entering Turn 14, but chose not to perform a Ricciardo-esque lunge. This was somewhat of a microcosm for the weekend – Sainz solid, but unspectacular.
Kevin Magnussen - 7
Qualified – 11th
Finished – 10th
Neither Magnussen nor his Haas team-mate Grosjean pitted under the safety car and that eventually proved costly. Magnussen immediately dropped behind Hulkenberg after running wide at the final corner on the restart and eventually fell to 10th. His pace in the latter stages did allow him to stay ahead of the Force India pair, who had fitted new tyres during the safety car intervention and 10th still marked an improvement on qualifying, where he missed out on Q3 by 0.016s.
Esteban Ocon - 6
Qualified – 12th
Finished – 11th
Starting outside the top 10, Ocon was granted the opportunity to start on a fresh set of soft tyres. However, Force India brought Ocon into the pits on lap 13 – several laps earlier than projected – in an attempt to undercut Alonso. Later, Ocon pitted under the safety car but ceded track position which he was unable to recover. He did not have the pace to catch Magnussen in the closing stages, despite having a tyre advantage.
Sergio Perez - 6
Qualified – 8th
Finished – 12th
Qualifying in eighth, Perez enjoyed his best result of the season so far on Saturday, with his first Q3 appearance. Sunday was hampered when he suffered a dreadful start. He even left the track on the opening lap after losing out in a battle with Alonso at the high-speed right-hander of Turn 8.
Finishing behind Ocon despite starting ahead will have done nothing to restore Perez’s post-race mood. Force India is improving but neither Perez nor his team-mate have the tools to match their 2017 best-of-the-rest exploits.
Stoffel Vandoorne - 6
Qualified – 14th
Finished – 13th
For the second consecutive week, Vandoorne lost ground at the start and made his opening stint far more challenging than it needed to be. Three overtakes prior to the pitstop meant that he did manage to recover the track position, with his race pace stronger than his qualifying showing.
Hopes of scoring points vanished when the safety car was deployed. McLaren were wrong-footed by the timing and Vandoorne remained on the one-stop strategy which left him powerless to make up any extra places after the resumption of the race. A “strong vibration” in the final few laps further blunted his pace.
Lance Stroll - 7
Qualified – 18th
Finished – 14th
Stroll launched into points contention on lap one of the race. He climbed from his lackluster 18th on the grid to 12th and held his own when battling against the Force India pair.
Having pitted just before the safety car was deployed, Stroll’s race was compromised. Had it not been for this poor timing, he had an opportunity to finish ahead of the Force India’s. A 14th place finish still marks an improvement on recent form for Williams and Stroll.
Sergey Sirotkin - 6
Qualified – 16th
Finished – 15th
Unlike his team-mate, Sirotkin did manage to take advantage of the safety car by making a second pitstop. The Russian enjoyed his best race so far and demonstrated pace comparable with Stroll in the latter stages closing to finish just 2.7s behind him in 15th.
This followed a strong qualifying performance in which Sirotkin nearly proceeded into the Q2 session for the first time. He was edged into the drop zone in 16th place by Hartley’s Toro Rosso, missing out by just 0.049s.
Marcus Ericsson - 5
Qualified – 20th
Finished – 16th
Unable to take advantage of the safety car after having made his one and only stop prior to its deployment, Ericsson was powerless to replicate the points scoring heroics of one week previous.
This frustrating race came after a difficult qualifying session which ended with the slowest time of all and 0.450s adrift of his rookie team-mate Charles Leclerc. To add insult to injury, Ericsson was also hit with a five-place grid penalty for ignoring yellow flags during the session – particularly annoying given that it was Leclerc’s spin which triggered them.
Romain Grosjean - 5
Qualified – 10th
Finished – 17th
Making it into Q3 and out-qualifying Magnussen was Grosjean’s sole highlight of another tricky weekend. Despite the pace demonstrated by the Haas package, Grosjean is still yet to score a point in 2018.
Asked to move aside and allow Magnussen to overtake in the early stages, Grosjean was left frustrated and his afternoon got worse after the safety car when he suffered huge vibrations as a result of a flat-spot on the tyres. Forced into the pits 10 laps from the end of the race, Grosjean finished 17th.
Pierre Gasly - 3
Qualified – 17th
Finished – 18th
Following his heroic fourth place in Bahrain, Gasly returned to earth with a bump in China. Qualifying was disappointing as he was ejected at the Q1 stage, finishing 17th. He then proceeded to lose two positions on the first lap. He did display reasonable pace during his recovery drive though, with team-mate Brendon Hartley even being instructed to move aside for him in the opening stint, despite being on the theoretically faster tyre.
However, on lap 32 Gasly committed to an ever decreasing gap at the Turn 14 hairpin, mirroring the move which Verstappen would later attempt on Vettel. Gasly’s biggest problem was that the driver he pitched into a spin was Hartley. The incident was attributed to a miscommunication between the drivers and the pitwall but that will not have prevented the debrief from being decidedly awkward.
Charles Leclerc - 5
Qualified – 19th
Finished – 19th
Leclerc’s weekend started in promising fashion. He may have qualified on the back-row of the grid, but Sauber faced its most challenging weekend of 2018 at a venue which did not seem to suit the car. Despite a spin early in the session, Leclerc out-qualified team-mate Ericsson by nearly half a second.
The race initially followed on in similarly promising fashion. Leclerc vaulted ahead of Gasly at the start to run in 18th. However, a spin at Turn 1 on lap 29 cost him time and his pace gradually fell away as the race progressed. He finished 19th and last.
Brendon Hartley - 5
Qualified – 15th
Finished – DNF
Despite out-qualifying team-mate Gasly, Hartley was unable to match the pace of his team-mate during the opening stages of the race. Hartley was running on the ultrasoft rubber while Gasly was using the more durable medium tyre, but the team still ordered the pair to swap positions as a result of their relative speed within the first 10 laps. After the switch, Hartley’s pace failed to improve for the remainder of the stint.
Hartley eventually retired from the race with a gearbox issue but not before he and Gasly collided at Turn 14, in an incident attributed to miscommunication – Hartley had been told to let his team-mate through but had intended to do it on the exit of the corner. Running wide through the apex, Gasly slid up the inside of an ever decreasing gap as Hartley turned into the corner. While this was not Hartley’s fault – as confirmed by the stewards verdict – it was still a scruffy incident in a weekend without polish.