We rate the drivers after the German GP

Red Bull-Renault RB9
Start: 2nd
Finish: 1st
Strategy: 3 stops (soft/medium/medium/medium)
Rating: 9

Vettel finally filled the one glaring hole on his CV, a home grand prix victory, with a Sunday afternoon masterclass. Lotus looked to have the race in its grasp, but Vettel drove superbly, finding the pace when he needed it to ensure he never lost control of the situation.

The only question mark hanging over his weekend was whether he could have bridged the one-tenth gap to pole with a neater first sector. One mark off for that, otherwise perfect.

Red Bull-Renault RB9
Start: 3rd
Finish: 7th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft/medium/medium/medium)
Rating: 8

Webber pushed Vettel hard in qualifying, but his relative lack of pace in the final sector cost him. Aced the start and briefly edged ahead of his team-mate, only to be hung out to dry at the exit of the first corner.

The disaster at his first pitstop cost him a lap, which was given back under the safety car. Did a decent job to climb into the points, but that was little consolation for a victory shot lost.

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

Alonso went into qualifying on medium rubber, so was on a hiding to nothing, but nonetheless underachieved by ending up behind team-mate Felipe Massa.

In the race, he survived his first set of tyres dropping off earlier than expected and then used the softs in the final stint to push for a podium position. Realistically, did not quite have the raw pace to challenge, so to finish so close to the front - albeit with safety car assistance - was the most he could have achieved.

Ferrari F138
Start: 7th
Finish: DNF
Strategy: retired (medium)
Rating: 4

The good news is that after a spate of crashes during the previous three race weekends, Massa had a much smoother run through practice and qualifying in Germany. He even got a little more out of the medium-compound Pirellis to outqualify Alonso.

The bad news is that in the race Massa managed to spin away sixth place, ahead of Alonso, after locking up the rears under braking for Turn 1. One huge mistake ruined an otherwise good weekend.

McLaren-Mercedes MP4-28
Start: 9th
Finish: 6th
Strategy: 2 stops (medium/medium/soft)
Rating: 8

Did a fine job to haul the tricky McLaren into Q3. In the race, it was no surprise to see him pull off a two-stop strategy, starting on medium rubber, and getting very close to claiming fifth place.

Inevitably when a driver loses a position (in this case to Lewis Hamilton) on the final lap, questions are asked, and there were times in the race where Button was slightly conservative. But given the traffic and his tyre disadvantage in the dying laps, it's forgivable.

McLaren-Mercedes MP4-28
Start: 13th
Finish: 8th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/medium/medium)
Rating: 7

Seemed not to be able to cope with the handling characteristics of the McLaren as well as Button in qualifying, but was far more convincing in the race. Executed a two-stopper well, overtaking his team-mate in his first stint on softs, and had no major problems making the rubber last.

Had Webber, who passed him on the last lap, not been out of position, Perez would have finished one place behind his team-mate. His race pace was certainly more impressive at times.

Lotus-Renault E21
Start: 4th
Finish: 2nd
Strategy: 3 stops (soft/medium/medium/soft)
Rating: 9

Once again, there was the feeling that Raikkonen should have done a little better in qualifying, although how much of that was in his control given that the tyres weren't up to temperature in sector 1 is open to question. But in the race, he drove typically well and pushed Vettel to the finish.

In hindsight, there was a way for Raikkonen to have won this race, but after showing good pace and pulling off some decent passes, that lay more in strategy than the Finn's hands.

Lotus-Renault E21
Start: 5th
Finish: 3rd
Strategy: 3 stops (soft/medium/medium/medium)
Rating: 9

Grosjean's Nurburgring weekend was a good example of a driver delivering when he needed to. With legitimate question marks about his future, Grosjean was within a tenth of Raikkonen and managed to eke out his first set of softs to set up a potentially winning position that was compromised a little by the safety car.

Overall, he was fast, consistent and, aside from a slightly fluffed restart and the odd ragged moment, it was a very fine performance in difficult circumstances.

Mercedes F1 W04
Start: 11th
Finish: 9th
Strategy: 3 stops (medium/medium/medium/soft)
Rating: 6

Came into his home grand prix weekend on a high, but the team badly misjudged the rate of track evolution in Q2 and he failed to make the top 10 shootout. Mercedes' mistake, certainly, but had he been a tenth or two faster, as his team-mate was in similar circumstances, it wouldn't have been fatal.

Drove an unremarkable race battling tyre degradation, but a final-stint charge on soft rubber allowed him to climb from 16th to ninth to salvage a couple of points.

Mercedes F1 W04
Start: 1st
Finish: 5th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft/medium/medium/medium)
Rating: 8

The weekend started well in Friday morning practice, but as the track temperature rose Hamilton found life harder before recovering with a second successive pole position.

Got an average getaway, handing Vettel the initiative, and his conservatism on the brakes into Turn 1 allowed Webber an easy pass. The team's tyre struggles made it impossible to compete and fifth, after a last-lap, around-the-outside pass on Button, was as good as it was going to get.

Sauber-Ferrari C32
Start: 10th
Finish: 10th
Strategy: 3 stops (medium/medium/medium/soft)
Rating: 8

Made a set-up breakthrough after Saturday morning practice that seemed to make the Sauber a much more competitive proposition, leading to some raised eyebrows when he made it into Q3.

Rightly opted not to run and started on mediums, but didn't find the car as convincing in race trim. Seemed to spend the whole race scrapping with other midfielders, losing plenty of time, but passed di Resta with two laps remaining for one of the hardest-won points of his career.

Sauber-Ferrari C32
Start: 14th
Finish: 13th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft/medium/medium/medium)
Rating: 5

Looked to be having a decent run in qualifying until Hulkenberg pulled his stunning Q2 lap out of the bag, once again leaving Gutierrez looking very average.

Come the race, he turned in a tidy performance and fared reasonably well in battle. The trouble is, at no point during the weekend did he ever show convincingly that he had anything approaching Hulkenberg-like pace. Allowances can be made for his lack of experience, but needs to be kicking on in qualifying in particular.

Force India-Mercedes VJM06
Start: 12th
Finish: 11th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/medium/medium)
Rating: 7

Given that Force India was relatively lacklustre at the Nurburgring and didn't look like a serious Q3 contender, di Resta's performance was better than the results suggested. Having struggled for balance on Friday, he managed to assert himself over team-mate Adrian Sutil thereafter and came close to picking up points on a well-executed two-stopper.

The bottom line is that tyre degradation made him a sitting duck late on. All things considered, a strong performance throughout the weekend in a car that disappointed.

Force India-Mercedes VJM06
Start: 15th
Finish: 13th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft/medium/medium/medium)
Rating: 6

An OK weekend from Sutil, who despite qualifying and finishing behind his team-mate was usually not too far adrift.

The biggest difference, aside from the three tenths of a second in qualifying, was that Sutil proved unable to pull off a two-stop strategy. A third stop was needed, which ended any possibility of points. Had been just ahead of di Resta when the call was made, but would have had no chance of making the tyres last to the end.

Williams-Renault FW35
Start: 18th
Finish: 15th
Strategy: 2 stops (medium/medium/soft)
Rating: 8

A fuel pump problem restricted him to a single run in Q1, meaning that he was outqualified by team-mate Bottas for the sixth time this season. But come the race, did a fine job only to lose time at his final pitstop, when there was a problem getting the wheelgun attached to the front-right wheelnut.

Had he been able to go on a charge on his softs in the final stint, a point might have been possible. All things considered, a good weekend's work.

Williams-Renault FW35
Start: 17th
Finish: 16th
Strategy: 2 stops (medium/medium/soft)
Rating: 7

Won the intra-Williams qualifying battle by a fraction, although it was a relatively meaningless victory given his team-mate's technical problems.

As usual, drove a good, consistent race - albeit not quite as good as his team-mate's - that belied his inexperience. Ran in the points before his late final stop, which was slow thanks to a cross-threaded wheelnut and condemned him to a lowly finish. Without that, and an earlier slow stop, a maiden point might have been possible.

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

The Frenchman often seems to have weekends like this. He struggled during practice, complaining the car was tricky to drive, and reckoned there were no mistakes in Q2 to explain the near one-second qualifying gap to his team-mate.

In fairness, he didn't have much opportunity to impress during the race, save for his good awareness that prevented a crash when di Resta was released into his path in the pits. Hydraulics problems forced his retirement, but wasn't a threat for points at the time.

Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR8
Start: 6th
Finish: 12th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft/medium/medium/medium)
Rating: 7

Silverstone had told Red Bull very little about Ricciardo, who's regularly shown that, with a clean run, he's seriously quick and capable of delivering points. But in Germany he successfully got on top of set-up to turn around a tricky weekend.

His grid position was boosted by Ferrari qualifying on mediums and Rosberg's troubles, but simply making Q3 was impressive. The car regressed to the mean in the race, leaving Ricciardo pointless as he battled a lack of grip behind a two-stopping di Resta.

Caterham-Renault CT03
Start: 22nd
Finish: 17th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft/medium/medium/medium)
Rating: 7

Claimed 'pole position' in the Caterham/Marussia class, only to lose it again when the team had to break the seal on his gearbox to change a layshaft. That relegated him to the back, but the Frenchman showed his qualifying speed had carried over into the race and had a strong drive up to the point where he had to pit with a slow puncture after the safety car.

To his credit he recovered well and used his tyre advantage to get ahead of both Chilton and team-mate van der Garde by the finish.

Caterham-Renault CT03
Start: 20th
Finish: 18th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft/medium/medium/medium)
Rating: 6

Qualifying was not particularly impressive and van der Garde ended up eight tenths off his team-mate, although he reckoned there wasn't much more pace to be found in his car, particularly with a lack of tyre temperature in the first sector.

But he was much more convincing in the race and looked odds-on to be the best-placed Marussia/Caterham driver. Unfortunately, his weakness in tyre management relative to Pic told, and the Frenchman was able to pass him late on.

Marussia-Cosworth MR-02
Start: 19th
Finish: DNF
Strategy: retired (soft/medium/medium)
Rating: 8

Considering he only managed 10 laps on Friday thanks to a combination of Rodolfo Gonzalez taking over his car and a stomach bug, Bianchi did a superb job to come so close to outqualifying Pic, especially as he was "not 100 per cent yet".

Pic's gearbox penalty gave Bianchi a clear run in the Caterham versus Marussia scrap, and he looked to have the speed to prevail, having just overtaken van der Garde when his engine let go.

Marussia-Cosworth MR-02
Start: 21st
Finish: 19th
Strategy: 4 stops (soft/medium/medium/medium/medium)
Rating: 5

Having made quietly effective progress in the first part of the season, Chilton's qualifying performances seem to have gone backwards. For the second successive race he was more than a second off Bianchi thanks to "a couple of mistakes" and poor tyre temperature balance front-to-rear.

The raw pace gap was perhaps between three and five tenths. Chilton's race was much stronger and he mixed it well with the Caterhams, but shot rear tyres in the final stint meant he ended up last.