We rate the drivers after the Bahrain GP

Red Bull-Renault RB9
Start: 2nd
Finish: 1st
Strategy: 3 stops (medium/hard/hard/hard)
Rating: 10

A classy victory from Vettel. The only thing you could make a case for marking him down on was qualifying, although he reckoned Nico Rosberg's lap was "unbeatable".

A trait rarely commented on is Vettel's ability to be incisive and make key passes when he needs to, and that's exactly what he did in dispatching Fernando Alonso and Rosberg in the first three laps. From there he managed the race, and the tyres, to perfection.

Red Bull-Renault RB9
Start: 7th
Finish: 7th
Strategy: 3 stops (medium/hard/hard/hard)
Rating: 6

Came into the weekend with a three-place grid penalty hanging over him and could have done better to mitigate the loss with a stronger qualifying performance as he was more than seven tenths off Vettel.

While his team-mate made it to the front and capitalised on clear air, Webber spent the race in traffic and battling tyre degradation, culminating in the loss of two places on the last lap. Clattering Rosberg, for which he earned a reprimand, was clumsy but ultimately not costly.

Ferrari F138
Start: 3rd
Finish: 8th
Strategy: 4 stops (medium/hard/hard/hard/hard)
Rating: 9

For the second time in three races Alonso had good cause to curse the judgement of the Ferrari pit. The single-lap pace to challenge for pole wasn't quite there, but he was in a promising second place when his DRS flap stuck open.

That sent him to the pits for repairs, but having been told the DRS was safe to use, it happened again. Subsequent recovery was impressive considering he had to work harder to overtake and suffered more tyre degradation in traffic.

Ferrari F138
Start: 4th
Finish: 15th
Strategy: 4 stops (hard/hard/medium/hard/medium)
Rating: 5

The Brazilian endured some severe misfortune during the race, suffering two punctures that condemned him to a pointless afternoon. That was out of his control, but beyond that it was a scruffy weekend.

Didn't have the speed to challenge in qualifying so opted for the hard tyres in Q3, but an opening-lap clash with Adrian Sutil, with resulting front-wing damage, immediately set him back. Even factoring in the bad luck, Massa's weekend is best described as average.

McLaren-Mercedes MP4-28
Start: 10th
Finish: 10th
Strategy: 4 stops (medium/hard/hard/hard/medium)
Rating: 5

Hauled the McLaren through to Q3, which was probably as good as it was going to get, but opted not to run in order to start the race on fresh rubber. His grand prix started promisingly, although unusually for the calculating Button he allowed himself to get embroiled in a costly scrap with Sergio Perez.

Arguably, he would have been better off letting his quicker team-mate past. Ultimately, he took too much out of his rubber and had to four-stop, relegating him to 10th.

McLaren-Mercedes MP4-28
Start: 12th
Finish: 6th
Strategy: 3 stops (medium/hard/hard/hard)
Rating: 8

Qualifying was adequate but unspectacular, lapping a couple of tenths off Button, but Perez's race performance was far more impressive. While he grabbed the headlines for overstepping the mark, at one stage tapping his team-mate, he was effectively doing exactly what team principal Martin Whitmarsh had told him to do by being more forceful.

Unlike Button, he didn't over-work his tyres too hard despite going at it. His reward was a McLaren career-best sixth place that will do him the world of good.

Lotus-Renault E21
Start: 8th
Finish: 2nd
Strategy: 2 stops (medium/hard/hard)
Rating: 8

Complained that the Lotus simply wasn't fast enough after setting the ninth-fastest qualifying time, but considering both his Q2 performance and his best three sectors combined were good enough for sixth and fourth respectively, that seemed a little disingenuous.

Made up for it in the race though, executing his two-stopper to perfection and ending up only nine seconds behind Vettel. Had he stuck the car on the second row in qualifying, he could certainly have made life harder for the Red Bull driver.

Lotus-Renault E21
Start: 11th
Finish: 3rd
Strategy: 3 stops (hard/hard/medium/medium)
Rating: 8

Looked certain to make Q3, but Lotus didn't help his cause by sending him out for his single run in the second segment of qualifying a few minutes early at a time when the track was getting quicker by the second.

Drove superbly in the race, combining speed with being clean but incisive in battle and was rewarded with a much-needed podium finish after hunting down Paul di Resta late on.

Mercedes F1 W04
Start: 1st
Finish: 9th
Strategy: 4 stops (medium/hard/hard/hard/medium)
Rating: 8

Nobody gave Rosberg much thought heading into Q3, leading to much headscratching when he stuck his Mercedes on pole. Quite simply, he had driven a brilliant lap, not taking too much out of the tyres early on and banging in the best time in all three sectors.

The race was always going to be tough, but Rosberg was robust in battle. That played its part in him having to stop four times, which was ultimately an unintended consequence of his superb Saturday lap.

Mercedes F1 W04
Start: 9th
Finish: 5th
Strategy: 3 stops (medium/medium/hard/hard)
Rating: 8

Headed into qualifying knowing he faced a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change, but a scruffy Q3 lap didn't do the best job of mitigating his losses.

Was utterly anonymous for much of the race, but this was largely down to his playing the long-game effectively, pulling off a three-stopper that his team-mate could not. This put him in the position to attack Webber for fifth late on, a place he snatched on the last lap.

Sauber-Ferrari C32
Start: 14th
Finish: 12th
Strategy: 3 stops (hard/hard/medium/medium)
Rating: 6

The Bahrain circuit configuration cruelly exposed the shortcomings of the Sauber, meaning that Hulkenberg never looked like a top-10 threat in qualifying. Briefly flirted with the periphery of the points early in the race, but it was an impossible battle and he gradually drifted out of contention, ending up 26 seconds shy of 10th-placed Button.

Even if this was not Hulkenberg's finest weekend, and it's difficult to judge either way, the best he could have done was beat Pastor Maldonado.

Sauber-Ferrari C32
Start: 22nd
Finish: 18
Strategy: 4 stops (hard/hard/hard/medium/medium)
Rating: 5

The last thing Gutierrez needed after the tough start to his grand prix career was a five-place grid penalty hanging over him, yet he tried to make the best of it. Sacrificed qualifying ambitions to concentrate on race pace, so escapes criticism for falling in Q1 again.

A first-lap clash forced him into the pits early and he was never able to recover. Given the pace of the car, really should have been able to get back ahead of Pic though.

Force India-Mercedes VJM06
Start: 5th
Finish: 4th
Strategy: 2 stops (medium/hard/hard)
Rating: 9

Shaded the intra-team qualifying war with Sutil, albeit by the narrowest of margins. This, combined with the penalties for Webber and Hamilton, put him in a very promising position for the race.

Locked in to a two-stopper early on, he executed the strategy superbly, running in the top three for most of the race. Was powerless to keep Grosjean - who had a tyre advantage - at bay in the closing stages. Hard to see what he could have done better to prevent that happening.

Force India-Mercedes VJM06
Start: 6th
Finish: 13th
Strategy: 3 stops (medium/hard/hard/medium)
Rating: 7

Sutil was very close to di Resta's pace in qualifying and surely would have finished the race in fifth place at worst but for the opening-lap clash with Massa that forced him into the pits with a puncture.

Thereafter, his pace was strong but he had lost too much time to get back into the points. Pace has been strong on his comeback, but two first-lap scraps in two races is worryingly reminiscent of the German in the first half of his F1 career.

Williams-Renault FW35
Start: 17th
Finish: 11th
Strategy: 3 stops (medium/hard/hard/hard)
Rating: 7

The Venezuelan was unfortunate not to make Q2 having matched team-mate Valtteri Bottas's time to the thousandth-of-a-second, only to be classified behind him as he set the mark later.

Given how uncompetitive the Williams was, there's no shame in his qualifying performance and, aside from one brief excursion while battling with Daniel Ricciardo, his drive in the race was fine. Finished 11th, which was unquestionably the best that a Williams could have done without others hitting trouble. Car, not driver, is the limiting factor.

Williams-Renault FW35
Start: 15th
Finish: 14th
Strategy: 3 stops (hard/hard/hard/medium)
Rating: 6

Another solid weekend's work from Bottas, who technically outqualified Maldonado despite them setting identical times in Q1. The Finn's inexperience showed in the first half of the race as he overworked the tyres, which cost him time, but he proved he's a quick learner by tackling this later.

Finished 15 seconds behind Maldonado, having been right behind him early on, which confirms there was untapped potential in this race for Bottas. Could have done without the scrape with Jean-Eric Vergne early on.

Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR8
Start: 16th
Finish: DNF
Strategy: retired (hard/hard)
Rating: 4

Seemed unable to exploit the extra grip of the softer tyre compound in qualifying, something that's been a problem for him in the past. This left him three tenths behind team-mate Ricciardo and played its part in Vergne being in harm's way early in the race.

Contact with Bottas shoved him into Giedo van der Garde's Caterham. The resulting damage forced Vergne into the pits for repairs and, ultimately, retirement. Had he delivered in qualifying, this would not have happened.

Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR8
Start: 13th
Finish: 16th
Strategy: 3 stops (medium/hard/hard/hard)
Rating: 6

After his great run to seventh in China, this was something of a wake-up call for Toro Rosso, which was perhaps flattered by the limited-front-degradation Shanghai circuit.

Hard to judge where the car should have been in qualifying, although a couple of tenths would have been worth two places, while in the race it simply wasn't fast enough for Ricciardo to make an impression. In the end, had to work hard to keep Pic's Caterham at bay.

Caterham-Renault CT03
Start: 18th
Finish: 14th
Strategy: 3 stops (medium/hard/hard/hard)
Rating: 8

Pic's car ran with the first half of Caterham's major upgrade, the rest of which will appear at next month's Spanish Grand Prix. And he used the package, which included a new rear wing and tweaks to the front wing, superbly.

So well, in fact, that he was more interested in trying to jump ahead of Ricciardo's Toro Rosso in the race than keeping the slower Marussias at bay. Maybe could even have finished 13th with a perfect race, but still a good weekend's work.

Caterham-Renault CT03
Start: 20th
Finish: 21st
Strategy: 5 stops (medium/hard/medium/hard/medium/hard)
Rating: 6

It's impossible to compare van der Garde's performance in Bahrain directly with that of Pic, for the Frenchman had the benefit of an upgrade worth as much as half-a-second per lap.

That said, the 1.1s gap to his team-mate suggests there was more in the car in qualifying. The race was equally inconclusive, as van der Garde picked up damage after collecting Vergne's Toro Rosso early on, casting him adrift at the back of the pack.

Marussia-Cosworth MR-02
Start: 19th
Finish: 19th
Strategy: 4 stops (medium/hard/hard/hard/medium)
Rating: 7

After sitting out Friday morning practice to allow reserve driver Rodolfo Gonzalez some mileage, it took Bianchi a while to catch up. But with Caterham taking a step forward, it was difficult for him to make as big an impression as he had previously, especially with Marussia struggling badly at a track that's traditionally not been kind to it.

Wasn't too far off beating Gutierrez, so perhaps there was one more place there for the taking with a perfect race.

Marussia-Cosworth MR-02
Start: 21st
Finish: 20th
Strategy: 4 stops (medium/hard/hard/hard/medium)
Rating: 7

The opening three weekends of the season were difficult for Chilton, although he had shown flashes of more respectable pace than was superficially apparent.

He was three-tenths down on Bianchi in qualifying despite losing track time in Saturday morning practice, which was a decent effort, and he carried that form into the race, finishing only 12s behind his team-mate. Nothing extraordinary here, but a good effort considering his experience relative to Bianchi.