Malaysian Grand Prix driver ratings

6 NICO ROSBERG
Mercedes F1 W07

Start: 2nd
Finish: 3rd
Strategy: 3 stops (soft/hard/hard/soft)

Rating: 7

Rosberg led a charmed life in Malaysia. He was almost outqualified by the Red Bulls but did just enough to salvage second, despite several errors. He was blameless in the Vettel incident, but clumsy in his penalised later repass of Raikkonen.

He was fortunate to escape damage in both cases, and even luckier Hamilton's engine failed. It was a fantastic result in the circumstances, but fortunate.

44 LEWIS HAMILTON
Mercedes F1 W07

Start: 1st
Finish: Retired
Strategy: (soft/hard/retired)

Rating: 10

After the travails of Singapore this was a performance more typical of Hamilton - fast and commanding. He dominated qualifying following a clean run through practice, and was so far ahead it didn't matter his second Q3 run went awry.

The champion was looking strong favourite to win the race too, despite Red Bull applying pressure, until his Mercedes engine went bang.

5 SEBASTIAN VETTEL
Ferrari SF16-H

Start: 5th
Finish: Retired
Strategy: (soft/retired)

Rating: 6

Ferrari was nowhere near fighting for victory on the circuit where Vettel claimed his first win for the Scuderia last season.

Having qualified just behind the Red Bulls, Vettel needed to make the most of his strong start. Unfortunately a misjudgement sent him skittering into Rosberg and out of the race at Turn 1. A very costly mistake.

7 KIMI RAIKKONEN
Ferrari SF16-H

Start: 6th
Finish: 4th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft/hard/hard/soft)

Rating: 8

Another decent display from Raikkonen, who qualified only fractionally behind Vettel and brought home another solid haul of points.

He spent most of the race fighting a recovering Rosberg for the final podium spot. Inferior power and car damage from their collision at Turn 2 hampered his efforts. Raikkonen couldn't quite keep within the 10 seconds needed to get the job done.

19 FELIPE MASSA
Williams-Mercedes FW38

Start: 10th
Finish: 13th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft/hard/hard/medium)

Rating: 7

Massa did well to beat his team-mate, the Force Indias, and Button's McLaren in a tight fight to make Q3, but loses marks for ending up bottom of the top-10 shootout.

An electronics problem on the grid forced a pitlane start. Even with that Williams felt points were possible, but a puncture shortly after an early first pitstop ruined everything.

77 VALTTERI BOTTAS
Williams-Mercedes FW38

Start: 11th
Finish: 5th
Strategy: 1 stop (medium/hard)

Rating: 8

This ended up being a great race for Bottas, whose alternative strategy starting on the medium tyre paid off. This owes a debt of thanks to an underperformance in qualifying, for which he loses marks.

Bottas gained positions as others pitted out of the way, but was quick enough to make it pay later as he held off Perez and Alonso.

3 DANIEL RICCIARDO
Red Bull-Renault RB12

Start: 4th
Finish: 1st
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/hard/soft)

Rating: 9

A wonderful result for Ricciardo, who has driven more than well enough to deserve a victory this season. But he was the second best Red Bull driver here in truth.

He had to follow his team-mate's set-up direction after a poor Friday, and qualified fractionally slower than Verstappen. Ricciardo was fortunate to get ahead in the first corner shenanigans, but defended position brilliantly and crucially later on.

33 MAX VERSTAPPEN
Red Bull-Renault RB12

Start: 3rd
Finish: 2nd
Strategy: 3 stops (soft/soft/hard/soft)

Rating: 10

An excellent drive from Verstappen, who was Red Bull's lead driver on Friday and Saturday, and probably would have been on Sunday too but for getting forced wide when Vettel and Rosberg collided at Turn 1.

He looked the only driver capable of giving Hamilton pause for thought in the race, but got stuck behind Ricciardo. Verstappen gave it a good go, but just couldn't break through.

11 SERGIO PEREZ
Force India-Mercedes VJM09

Start: 7th
Finish: 6th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/medium/hard)

Rating: 8

Perez was delighted to emerge best of the rest behind the top three teams after an "intense" qualifying.

He might have achieved a similar result in the race, but fell 2.212s short of beating Bottas. Perez lost around 3s to a slow first stop, but that still probably wouldn't have got it done the way his second stop shook out against the Williams.

27 NICO HULKENBERG
Force India-Mercedes VJM09

Start: 8th
Finish: 8th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft/medium/hard/soft)

Rating: 7

Qualifying was close with Perez again, but Hulkenberg failed to improve in Q3 after letting the rhythm "slip through my fingers" at Turns 2, 7 and 8.

His race was defined by avoiding action amid the first corner melee and getting stuck behind Button's McLaren for half the afternoon. He eventually made it by with help from a big tyre advantage, 13 laps from the end.

20 KEVIN MAGNUSSEN
Renault RS16

Start: 14th
Finish: Retired
Strategy: (medium/hard/retired)

Rating: 8

An eventful weekend for Magnussen, who lost most of Friday practice to a fuel fire, but recovered brilliantly to outqualify both Toro Rossos.

His race was completely ruined at the first corner, where he got rear-ended by Kvyat and pushed into Gutierrez while trying to avoid the Vettel/Rosberg collision. Magnussen soldiered on until damaged brake ducts became too big a problem to continue.

30 JOLYON PALMER
Renault RS16

Start: 19th
Finish: 10th
Strategy: 1 stop (hard/soft)

Rating: 8

Palmer's emotions were up and down like a yo-yo this weekend. After being 12th fastest on his "best Friday of the year", he tumbled to a "depressing" 19th in qualifying, misreading the reason for a sudden change in chassis balance.

The race restored his smile. He executed a one-stop strategy and kept Sainz at bay to finally break his F1 points duck.

26 DANIIL KVYAT
Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR11

Start: 15th
Finish: 14th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft/hard/soft/soft)

Rating: 7

Kvyat felt lucky to escape Q1 amid traffic, but having scraped through he did a decent job to go fractionally faster than Sainz in Q2, the first time he's outqualified his team-mate since Baku.

Unfortunately he ran into the back of Magnussen in the first corner concertina. Pitting for a new front wing left him stuck near the back, with little chance of progress.

55 CARLOS SAINZ JR
Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR11

Start: 16th
Finish: 11th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/hard/soft)

Rating: 8

Toro Rosso hoped to be close to the top 10 on pace here, but the car just has too much drag and not enough power to be properly competitive in the midfield on expansive tracks.

Though Sainz was uncharacteristically scrappy in qualifying, his race drive was pretty strong. He sniffed around the points, but just didn't quite have enough to beat Palmer's Renault.

9 MARCUS ERICSSON
Sauber-Ferrari C35

Start: 17th
Finish: 12th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/soft/hard)

Rating: 7

Not quite as impressive a qualifying performance as in Singapore, but Ericsson still ended up best of the Q1 brigade and only a couple of tenths away from Q2.

He enjoyed a decent first lap, but took a while to clear Ocon's slower Manor. The Swede chased hard after Sainz's Toro Rosso thereafter, until his pace dropped off in the closing stages.

12 FELIPE NASR
Sauber-Ferrari C35

Start: 18th
Finish: Retired
Strategy: (medium/hard/retired)

Rating: 6

Nasr didn't quite have the tyres ready for the early part of his qualifying lap and ended up 0.133s down on Ericsson.

He made a terrible start, and was last of all the cars that didn't hit trouble on the first lap. He struggled for pace starting on the medium tyre, and was just getting into his final stint when brake-by-wire failure struck.

14 FERNANDO ALONSO
McLaren-Honda MP4-31

Start: 22nd
Finish: 7th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft/hard/soft/soft)

Rating: 10

Another great drive from Alonso, who defied a 45-place grid penalty for illegal engine component swaps to charge well into the points from a back of the grid start.

He did his usual good job on lap one to dodge chaos and gain places, and aggressive strategy got him ahead of Hulkenberg mid-race. Alonso was pressuring the other Force India for sixth by the end.

22 JENSON BUTTON
McLaren-Honda MP4-31

Start: 9th
Finish: 9th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/hard/soft)

Rating: 8

Good work from Button, who pulled out a strong lap to make Q3 after heavy traffic threatened to thwart him. He climbed into the top six early on, thanks to Vettel and Rosberg tangling.

Button ran ahead of Hulkenberg for the first half of the race, but felt not making a third stop under the final virtual safety car cost a better result.

31 ESTEBAN OCON
Manor-Mercedes MRT-05

Start: 20th
Finish: 16th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/hard/hard)

Rating: 7

Ocon enjoyed his strongest Saturday so far in F1 - best of the Manors, more comfortable in the car, and communicating better with the team. He was fast all weekend and outqualified Wehrlein for the first time.

The GP3 champion then started superbly to climb into the top 10 on the first lap. The car was always likely to regress, but repeated pitlane speeding offences didn't help Ocon's cause either.

94 PASCAL WEHRLEIN
Manor-Mercedes MRT-05

Start: 21st
Finish: 15th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft/hard/hard/soft)

Rating: 7

Wehrlein described his weekend as "crap", following difficulties in practice and qualifying. He reverted from a new suspension set-up after Friday to begin a recovery, but an ignition problem in third practice disrupted his rhythm further.

He felt unwell on Sunday morning, but shrugged it off and finally got ahead of his team-mate in the race with a neat lunge into Turn 1.

8 ROMAIN GROSJEAN
Haas-Ferrari VF-16

Start: 12th
Finish: Retired
Strategy: (soft/retired)

Rating: 7

Grosjean wasn't happy with his car's balance at all during the build-up, but got things together in time to bounce back from the nightmare of Singapore and outqualify his team-mate (just) here.

He wasn't able to keep Alonso behind, but otherwise started the race strongly, and was in contention for points until his brakes failed. A bad result, but a much better performance.

21 ESTEBAN GUTIERREZ
Haas-Ferrari VF-16

Start: 13th
Finish: Retired
Strategy: (soft/soft/hard/retired)

Rating: 7

Gutierrez is driving well of late, and he matched Grosjean to the tenth here. But for an error at Turn 14 their grid positions might have been reversed.

A hit from Magnussen's Renault in the Turn 1 melee caused a puncture and damaged Gutierrez's floor. He battled on until the left-front wheel detached, bizarrely 17 laps after his second pitstop.