Azerbaijan Grand Prix driver ratings

Daniel Ricciardo: (started 10th, finished 1st)

After qualifying all went wrong, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix was looking difficult and another podium result was looking unlikely for Ricciardo. When the lights went out for the race, things went from bad to worse when Ricciardo was forced to pit early on lap 6, leaving him down in 19th place.

From then on in however, Ricciardo sliced through the field to find himself sitting in fifth place when the race was red flagged on lap 22. This fifth place quickly became third and then first when Hamilton and Vettel fell into difficulty. The impressive nature of his recovery drive explains his rating of 9, with only his qualifying performance letting him down this weekend.

Rating: 9/10

Valtteri Bottas: (started 2nd, finished 2nd)

Bottas showed some strong pace in qualifying, claiming his first front row start since his Bahrain pole. However, the start saw carnage for him as he made contact with Kimi Raikkonen. Bottas took too much kerb and went into Raikkonen, with the Mercedes driver enduring damage which sent him back to the back of the field.

Safety cars may have worked in his favour but he worked his way through the pack. There were no mistakes for Bottas and chaos in front of him allowing him to scoop up places. He caught up to Lance Stroll right at the death to pass the Canadian for second, a great recovery drive to the same position he qualified in.

Rating: 9/10

Lance Stroll: (started 8th, finished 3rd)

What a weekend for the young Canadian. If claiming two points after at his home Grand Prix last time out felt like a victory, then surely this result feels like a world championship. Stroll showed his class and consistency that won him the Formula 3 European Championship season in 2016, climbing up onto the podium at the tender age of 18.

What's more, the young man out-qualified veteran teammate Felipe Massa for the first time in 2017. Fresh from some private tests in COTA last week, Stroll looks like a new man and will be hoping to continue this solid pace to Austria.

Rating: 9/10

Sebastian Vettel: (started 4th, finished 4th)

The German’s weekend started off relatively poorly, with his worst qualifying position of the year so far. He only managed fourth on a track where the Mercedes seemed to be a lot quicker in terms of one lap pace with by far the biggest margin to their competitors of the year so far. Although equally, Vettel had to go through Qualifying with an old engine, which surely cost him performance relative to his teammate, which was possibly enough to bridge the 0.148-second gap to Kimi Raikkonen. 

The race itself was a fairly standard affair for Vettel in the first half of the race. After he inherited second after Bottas and Raikkonen’s coming together on the first lap, he was fairly unchallenged running around in second place, not quite quick enough to properly challenge Hamilton ahead. Where his race changed though was surely his moment of madness on the second safety car restart, where after he thought he was brake checked by Hamilton, he saw red and purposefully collided with Hamilton, in a move that in hindsight surely cost him the victory and a huge lead in the championship.

He was handed the worst possible on track punishment short of disqualification for the incident of a 10-second stop-go penalty, and although he did well to recover fourth and actually increase his championship lead, the collision with Hamilton was a pure moment of madness. 

Rating: 5/10

Lewis Hamilton: (Started 1st, finished 5th)

The Brit nailed qualifying after being down in the classifications during practice sessions. Hamilton was in a league of his own at the front of the grid. He held off everyone at the start and during the three safety car restarts he endured, even after contact with Sebastian Vettel just before a restart.

He was arguably robbed a victory when his head rest came lose and he was unable to get it back down, requiring a trip to the pits and sort it out. Hamilton came out sixth and caught up to Esteban Ocon to pull off a brave move to overtake round the outside of turn one. After his unscheduled stop, 5th was only the best Hamilton could do.

Rating: 8.5/10

Esteban Ocon: (started 7th, finished 6th)

Qualifying went fairly well for Frenchman, achieving his best position on the grid to date. He was out-qualified again by team mate Perez, although by the smallest of margins, which is not to be sniffed at as Perez produced arguably the best qualifying performance of his career last year with a second place without the gearbox penalty he suffered then.

The race in the beginning didn't quite go so well, being passed by Felipe Massa on the first lap and not quite making the inroads into passing the Williams driver, only maintaining a gap of around 2 seconds before the first safety car. At the first safety car restart, he did make a pass on the ailing Raikkonen but it was the second safety car restart that was much more pivotal to his race, as he collided with Perez.

He appeared to squeeze Perez on the exit of turn three which no doubt wrecked what could have been a historic 1-2 finish for the Force India team with the problems for the others around them. The crash clearly affected Ocon’s pace as he seemed to be a few tenths slower relative to the Williams of Stroll who he seemed to be marginally quicker than in the first phases of the race.

In the end, sixth would be usually considered a decent result but it should have been a lot better, for the second time in a row the Force India’s costing themselves a better result.

Rating: 6/10

Kevin Magnussen: (Started 13th, finished 7th)

It was a handy weekend in the office for Kevin Magnussen who is really proving himself against his struggling teammate. Haas was struggling all weekend with brake problems and looked unlikely to escape the first session of qualifying. however, Magnussen pulled a rabbit out of the hat and got into Q2, where he would go on to claim 13th position.

The Dane found more pace in the and made up many spots, and was running high up in the order. Aided slightly by the misfortune of others, Magnussen found himself in P3 at one point, but it was too much of an ask to keep behind the two Mercedes' a Ferrari and a Force India.

Nevertheless, his best result for the Haas team moves him ahead of Romain Grosjean in the standings and allowed Haas to overtake Renault in the constructor standings

Rating: 8/10

Carlos Sainz: (started 15th, finished 8th):

Thanks to a grid penalty hanging over his head, Sainz was on something of a back foot not only before the race - when being out qualified by Kvyat certainly did not help - but at the start too, when a spin he suffered dropped him to the back of the field.

He had begun his recovery drive after five laps when he was sixteenth, and his charge continued when he passed Stoffel Vandoorne's McLaren for fifteenth and when Daniel Ricciardo made a pit stop, gifting him a further place.

The Red Bull would get past again, but it would not halt Sainz's progress, and he drove solidly throughout the remainder of the race - running as high as seventh at one point following Felipe Massa's retirement. He subsequently dropped another position, but would ultimately finish there in eighth, claiming four points as a consolation prize for Toro Rosso following Kyvat's premature stoppage.

This is another good result from a driver who rarely seems to disappoint, and it is perhaps the best recovery he could have hoped for after his first lap troubles.

Rating: 6/10

Fernando Alonso: (started 18th, finished 9th):

A typically gutsy drive saw Fernando Alonso finally reward McLaren-Honda with two points. The result was achieved through a number of scraps with more powerful cars, including both Saubers (with their year-old Ferrari engines) and title contenders Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel. The latter battle was undoubtedly thrilling, as it had been so long since those three titans had gone wheel to wheel, but Alonso admitted defeat and focused on the lower points positions.

The red flag period saw him in eighth place - and despite his lack of Honda grunt, he was able to retain this at the restart, advancing to sixth and then a brief fifth before this was taken by Valtteri Bottas. He would only fall back as far as ninth by the finish, however, on a track that seemed not to be in McLaren's favour. This should remind us all why Alonso is so respected - and why his team are so eager to re-sign him!

Rating: 8/10

Pascal Wehrlein: (started 14th, finished 10th)

Getting into Q2 for the first time this season and beating both Marcus Ericsson in qualifying and the race, Pascal Wehrlein secures a score of 7 this weekend in Azerbaijan. An impressive qualifying result meant that Wehrlein started in 14th place and his performance continued into the race to finish inside the points for the second time this season, although tenth place should have gone to Ericsson as promised by Sauber. A collision with his teammate late on in the race marks Wehrlein’s biggest mistake this weekend, preventing a higher score.

Rating: 7/10

Marcus Ericsson: (started  17th, finished 11th)

When at a team towards the back of the grid, beating your team mate is a key aim for any driver, and this was something that Marcus Ericsson failed to do in Azerbaijan, being out qualified and out raced by Pascal Wehrlein. An 11th place finish meant that Ericsson narrowly missed out on a points finish but did equal his highest finishing position of 2017 so far, although tenth place should have been his when Sauber promised to switch Ericsson with Wehrlein in the closing stages of the race but did not. A fairly average weekend in Baku leaves Ericsson with an average score.

Rating: 6/10

Stoffel Vandoorne: (started 19th, finished 12th)

As Baku depends more on engine power than other tracks, it seemed likely that the McLarens would struggle on Sunday afternoon -  worsened by the grid penalties that left Stoffel Vandoorne and Fernando Alonso at the back. It was ultimately Vandoorne who fared poorly. He was fifteenth on lap 1, ahead of Alonso, but almost immediately started to slip back – although Jolyon Palmer’s exit allowed him to move into seventeenth. These early laps set the tone for Vandoorne’s race, as he drifted in the lower half of the pack.

The numerous Safety Car periods briefly helped him to run further up, and he was eleventh when the race was stopped on lap 22, but could not capitalise on this. Alonso took points as Vandoorne ended in twelfth, only leading Romain Grosjean's ailing Haas. It seems the #2 car has seen its potential hindered yet again by the problematic Honda engine - we can only hope that things come good soon.

Rating: 3.5/10

Romain Grosjean: (started 17th, finished 13th)

To sum it up briefly - a weekend to forget for Grosjean. His Friday was overshadowed by consistent lockups and trips down the escape roads. In qualifying, he was outdone by his teammate by half a second, failing to make it out of Q1.

Grosjean's race never got going either, and he lingered down in the lower end of the classification for much of the race. With more complaints about brakes, Grosjean was the only driver to finish one lap behind. The Frenchman will firmly be setting his sights on the Austrian Grand Prix, and how to dish up a comeback. 

Rating: 3/10

Kimi Raikkonen: (started 3rd, retired)

Qualifying went as well as could be expected for the Finn, and achieved the rare feat of out-qualifying his teammate, but could have perhaps expected more of a margin than he did when Vettel was using a very old engine compared to his.

The race itself did not go well from the beginning for Raikkonen, as he was squeezed by Bottas bouncing over the kerb at turn 3 sending him down to fifth in a now somewhat damaged car, as his car disintegrated from this incident going forward, which clearly affected his pace somewhat going forward.

He was mugged on the first safety car restart being passed by Massa and Ocon sending him down to sixth (after he had earlier inherited fourth after Verstappen had retired) and this put him further into a position of danger for the second safety car restart, and debris from the two Force India’s incident ahead of him gave him a puncture and further damage to his rear wing that effectively retired him from the race.

Although Ferrari did send him out again after the red flag period, he was a lap down and did eventually retire anyway from the race, all from incidents that were unfortunately out of his control.

Rating 6/10

Sergio Perez: (started 6th, retired)

Perez maintained his hugely positive qualifying record against his highly rated teammate Esteban Ocon, having only been out qualified once all season, although the margin has been thin in most the races as it was in Baku. 

The first half of the race was going very well for Perez as he was lying third for a long period of the race after a good start, getting past Max Verstappen and the colliding Finns of Raikkonen and Bottas. He then held his own against a quicker Verstappen and Raikkonen behind him, becoming even more comfortable once Verstappen retired. He looked more than quick enough to gain his second podium in two years at Baku and even attempted to make a pass on Sebastian Vettel on the first safety car restart.

This is as good as it got for Perez after an impressive weekend, becoming damaged after Ocon squeezed him into the wall on the second safety car restart. Ultimately retiring from a broken seat, this will be very disappointing as with the problems for Hamilton and Vettel he could have inherited his first ever victory as he seemed to have had the pace on Ricciardo who won the race, especially as he would have had track position over the Red Bull.

Rating: 8/10

Felipe Massa: (started 9th, retired)

The weekend just never came together for Massa. Frequent trips down escaped roads in practice took its toll in qualifying as the Brazilian failed to get the tyres into a proper working window. He was also out-qualified by his teammate for the first time this season.

What could have been for Massa... a podium, most certainly was on the cards, as he was running in P3 when his car troubles. A win? Perhaps. He was ahead of Ricciardo after the red flag restart. Disappointing weekend from the Brazilian, despite showing some flair in the race.

Rating 5/10

Nico Hulkenberg: (started 13th, retired)

Hulkenberg showed pace in qualifying and battled hard in Q2 to start thirteenth. He continued to show pace during the race fighting with multiple cars and defending well, however it was through driver error which led Hulkenberg to retire. The German hit the wall shortly after the restart and was left devastated as he was running in a point scoring position for Renault.

Rating: 6/10

Max Verstappen: (started 5th, retired)

All weekend, Max Verstappen was looking very competitive around the streets of Baku, setting the pace in first and second practice. In qualifying, Verstappen also put in a good job, securing a starting position of fifth place although the Dutchman thought that he could have taken the fight to the Ferrari pair.

Looking set for a good result, an engine issue halted his running in the race when he was battling for third place against Sergio Perez, bringing about the end of his race on only lap 13 of 51.

Rating: 7/10

Daniil Kvyat: (started 11th, retired):

Kvyat did well to outqualify team-mate Carlos Sainz on Saturday, ending the afternoon as the fastest of the drivers to be out in Q2 as he slotted into eleventh. As the lights went out there was drama for him; Kvyat had to run wide at the first turn to avoid his team-mate, who spun shortly afterwards.

He was the lead Toro Rosso as a result of Sainz's setback and ran reliably on the edge of the top ten until lap 11, when his weekend came to an abrupt end. He was forced to stop on track with smoke pouring from his front brakes, leaving him to watch from the sidelines as the Safety Car was deployed to allow marshals to recover the stricken machine safely. Given the drama that unfolded later in the race and the opportunity this gave many drivers, it is unfortunate that Kvyat's consistent run came to such an early conclusion.

Rating: 5/10

Jolyon Palmer: (DNQ, retired)

After an engine blowout in FP3, Palmer was not able to qualify in his Renault due to the small repair window between FP3 and qualifying. He started at the back of the grid but did not last long as there were even more engine troubles. A tough weekend for the Brit who's future looks in serious doubt.

Rating: 4/10