Driver Ratings: 2018 Spanish Grand Prix
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The Formula 1 circus returned to its European heartland last weekend, as the Circuit de Barcelona played host to the Spanish Grand Prix.
While his win at the previous race was a product of good fortune, Lewis Hamilton was back to his brilliant best in Spain. He led home a Mercedes one-two, commanding a 20 second lead over team-mate Valtteri Bottas at the chequered flag.
Max Verstappen secured his first podium of the season finishing in third place, despite having to cope with considerable front wing damage in the closing stages.
Sebastian Vettel’s race was blunted by tyre wear and an extra pitstop versus his direct opposition en route to fourth.
A lap one incident eliminated three cars at the long right-hander of Turn 3. Romain Grosjean spun on the outside before his car swung into the path of the oncoming field, leaving Nico Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly on a collision course with his Haas.
With plenty of storylines emerging from an intriguing and race, here are our driver ratings for the 2018 Spanish Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton - 10
Qualified – 1st
Finished – 1st
Hamilton was at his unbeatable best throughout the Spanish GP weekend. His qualifying performance on Saturday was a case study in how to approach a Q3 session – first setting a very competitive banker lap before finding the critical time, (0.3 seconds on this occasion), to seal pole position. On Sunday, Hamilton was imperious. He stretched his first set of tyres eight laps further than Sebastian Vettel managed and eventually built a 20 second lead over his team-mate Valtteri Bottas in second place. Hamilton was unassailable.
Valtteri Bottas - 8
Qualified – 2nd
Finished – 2nd
Bottas was only 0.04s adrift of Hamilton’s impressive pole position time. The Circuit de Barcelona has the longest run to Turn 1 of any track on the F1 calendar, therefore making slipstream a powerful tool at the start. Hamilton inadvertently provided the tow to Vettel, meaning that it is difficult to blame Bottas for losing second to Vettel at the start – he was more a victim of circumstance.
Max Verstappen - 8
Qualified – 5th
Finished – 3rd
His first podium since his victory in last October’s Mexico Grand Prix, Verstappen has cited his Spanish Grand Prix as a “turning point” for his season. He out-raced team-mate Daniel Ricciardo for the first time in 2018. The collision with Lance Stroll prior to the virtual safety car restart was another clumsy move in what is a developing catalogue this season, but Verstappen coped well with the balance changes dealt as a result of such extensive front wing damage and managed to keep Vettel at arms length in the closing laps.
Sebastian Vettel - 7
Qualified – 3rd
Finished – 4th
Ferrari had a curious weekend. The car is usually among the best in tyre preservation, but high degradation ultimately cost Vettel a podium finish. While conceding critical track position behind the virtual safety car, after pitting from second and dropping to fourth, would appear to have been an error from the pitwall, Vettel’s high degradation meant that he would not have been able to competitively reach the end of the race with just one stop. Missing his marks in the pitbox for his first stop was a key factor in contributing to the long 5.9-second pitstop and was just one element of an unpolished Sunday for Vettel.
Daniel Ricciardo - 6
Qualified – 6th
Finished – 5th
Ricciardo’s race was largely an anonymous one. After suggesting on the radio that he was faster than Verstappen ahead in the opening stages of the race, Ricciardo’s pace ultimately inconsistent. A spin during the virtual safety car at Turn 10 effectively cost him 10 seconds and eliminated any chance for him to become a factor in the Verstappen and Vettel dice. A string of fastest laps at the end of the race demonstrated that consistent delivery of his true potential could have led to a much better result.
Kevin Magnussen - 9
Qualified – 7th
Finished – 6th
Aside from the shenanigans in practice, where Magnussen received another reprimand from the stewards for an “unnecessary” chop across the track in front of an oncoming Charles Leclerc, Magnussen’s weekend was a story of perfection. In qualifying seventh, he won the battle to be best of the rest and in the race, dominated this midfield fight to finish 37 seconds ahead of Carlos Sainz Jr’s Renault. His eight-point haul elevates Haas from eighth to sixth in the constructors’ championship.
Carlos Sainz Jr - 8
Qualified – 9th
Finished – 7th
Sainz followed up an impressive Azerbaijan Grand Prix performance with another strong points haul, which seemed unlikely after a Friday in which Renault struggled. The team’s tyre degradation was high in practice, but with the progress made over the weekend, Sainz was able to stick to the one-stop strategy which proved to be the most effective approach. In beating Fernando Alonso, Sainz has propelled Renault above McLaren in the constructors’ championship.
Fernando Alonso - 8
Qualified – 8th
Finished – 8th
It’s rare to see Alonso drop positions at the start of a race, but after finding himself on the outside of the Turn 3 Grosjean-induced drama on the opening lap, eighth on the grid became 11th in the order. It was a determined recovery drive, hampered by the fact that Alonso had to stop earlier than most and was therefore forced to cope with heavily worn tyres in the closing stages. He also lost considerable time while battling against Charles Leclerc, who posed a staunch defence of eighth for Sauber. Without these factors, Alonso could have finished seventh (again).
Sergio Perez - 8
Qualified – 15th
Finished – 9th
On a day when the one-stop approach proved to be the best strategy, finishing ninth on a two-stop strategy in F1’s brutally competitive midfield was a solid result for Perez. His second stop of the race came during the lap 42 virtual safety car. Perez emerged in 12th place and managed to pass Marcus Ericsson and Lance Stroll to return to the 10th position that he had sacrificed by pitting. Passing Charles Leclerc with two laps remaining meant that he was able to turn the wrong strategy into the right one.
Charles Leclerc - 9
Qualified – 14th
Finished – 10th
Leclerc’s sixth place in Azerbaijan and 10th in Spain have served to deliver Sauber’s first consecutive points scoring races since 2015. His drive to the final points paying position was down to three factors; Leclerc vaulted from 14th on the grid to ninth on lap one and demonstrated impressive pace in the opening stint. Then, when his pace inevitably began to falter as his tyres fatigued, he was brilliant in his defence against Alonso. Had he not been caught napping at the virtual safety car restart, Leclerc may have even held off the double world champion to the flag.
Lance Stroll - 8
Qualified – 19th
Finished – 11th
It is a shame that Stroll’s recent run of form is clouded by the poor performance of his car. Another fantastic start made up for Stroll’s trip to the gravel in qualifying, as he gained six places. To have fought with Force India’s during the race, despite driving a car which had been cut adrift of the field throughout practice and qualifying was a huge achievement.
Brendon Hartley - 9
Qualified – N/A
Finished – 12th
Hartley paid a huge penalty for what was ultimately a very small mistake in FP3. Dipping a the outside edge of his left wheels onto the grass on entry to the high-speed right-hander of Turn 9, a backwards trip into the barriers tore his car apart and ruled him out of qualifying. Aspirations for the weekend were reset at that point, with Hartley’s car not ready for qualifying. In the race, his pace in the opening stint was poor, with Sergey Sirotkin demoting Hartley to last of the runners. His pace did improve as the race progressed, particularly with fresh tyres after making a pitstop during the virtual safety car but it was too little too late.
Marcus Ericsson - 6
Qualified – 17th
Finished – 13th
A solid if unspectacular weekend from Ericsson as his rookie team-mate upstaged him for the second race running. He was unfortunate to have to take to the grass in order to avoid the Turn 3 accident on the opening lap after having been bullied into the run-off area at Turn 1. Ericsson fought hard to hold onto track position after being out of sequence on a contra-strategy in the race. His defence against Sainz, in particular, demonstrated Ericsson’s often underrated racecraft.
Sergey Sirotkin - 4
Qualified – 19th
Finished – 14th
Outqualifying an out of control Stroll on Saturday was the only highlight of an otherwise dismal weekend for Sirotkin. He made three pitstops during the race, with one coming as a result of a spin as the virtual safety as was withdrawn. His pace deteriorated as the race progressed and he ended up over a minute adrift of Ericsson. Definitely, one to forget for the rookie.
Stoffel Vandoorne - 5
Qualified – 11th
Finished – DNF
Considering that Vandoorne is in desperate need of a weekend in which he beats his team-mate, getting knocked out of Q3 as a result of a late lap from Alonso must have been doubly frustrating. In the race, Vandoorne found himself on the back foot early on, picking up a five-second time penalty after driving the wrong side of the bollard when recovering from the Turn 1 run-off area. He failed to make an impression in the top 10 throughout the race, running in only 13th when he retired with a mechanical issue.
Esteban Ocon - 6
Qualified – 13th
Finished – DNF
Outqualifying team-mate Perez was the highlight of Ocon’s weekend. It was followed by a dismal Sunday afternoon. Running 10th on the opening lap, Ocon might have been able to fight with Leclerc for the final point at the end of the race, but for a 20-second disaster pitstop when the wheel nut on his right rear tyre caused the mechanics problems. Marooned at the back of the field, Ocon retired with an oil pressure problem but by this point, the hope of points had already disappeared.
Kimi Raikkonen - 6
Qualified – 4th
Finished – DNF
Raikkonen has often been the faster of the two Ferrari drivers on Saturday’s this season, but for a late session mistake to cost him against Vettel. In Spain, Raikkonen was second best throughout the weekend. His pace in the opening stint was enough to keep ahead of the Red Bulls but adrift of what Vettel and Bottas were able to deliver. A second power unit failure of the weekend on lap 25 of the race completed an unfortunate and unspectacular weekend for the Finn.
Romain Grosjean - 3
Qualified – 10th
Finished – DNF
After an embarrassing crash while behind the safety car in Azerbaijan, Grosjean needed a clean weekend and his first points of the season. As demonstrated by Magnussen, this was a weekend in which Haas clearly had the fourth fastest car. However, it was another rookie mistake which curtailed Grosjean’s race as he lost control of the car on the outside of Turn 3, spinning across the track into the oncoming field collecting Nico Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly. Grosjean is still one of only two drivers not to score a point in 2018 and this was another huge missed opportunity. The three-place grid penalty as a result of the incident will provide a nasty hangover in Monaco.
Pierre Gasly - 6
Qualified – 12th
Finished – DNF
Qualifying in 12th was a decent result for Gasly, albeit difficult to assess with his team-mate Hartley not participating in the session. He was very unfortunate to be collected by Grosjean in the opening lap. Given that Hartley recovered to 12th from the back of the grid and a decidedly average opening stint, it is likely that Gasly would have scored points.
Nico Hulkenberg - 5
Qualified – 16th
Finished – DNF
Hopefully Hulkenberg didn’t bother to buy a lottery ticket on his way home on Sunday night as his luck was most definitely out in Spain. In qualifying, Hulkenberg only had one run in Q1 after a fuel pressure problem was caused by a foreign object being found in the tank, blocking a pick-up point. His one lap at the end of the session was poor by his high standards, but admittedly in very difficult circumstances. The incident on lap one of the race demonstrates the perils of a sub-optimal Saturday.