We rate the drivers after the Japanese GP

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

Some ragged moments prevent a perfect 10, even though this was a wonderfully executed win. The pace on both his KERS-less Q3 runs was impressive, if ragged, and he drove a canny race, looking after his tyres and then pressing home his pace advantage.

The decisiveness with which he dispatched Grosjean thanks to his speed off the chicane was superb. Really had to work this one, but there were some uncharacteristic lock-ups and a brief grassy moment along the way.

Red Bull-Renault RB9
Start: 1st
Finish: 2nd
Strategy: 3 stops (medium/hard/hard/medium)
Rating: 8

Admitted Vettel's problems assisted his pole, but the Australian had to be close enough to his team-mate's pace to capitalise, so deserves credit. How you judge his race depends on whether you believe Red Bull was wrong to put him on a three-stopper.

Two certainly might have worked, but Webber's cause would also have been helped by a good start, better first-stint tyre preservation and passing Grosjean sooner in the final stint to get at Vettel. Still a good weekend's work.

Ferrari F138
Start: 8th
Finish: 4th
Strategy: 2 stops (medium/hard/hard)
Rating: 8

Qualifying was disappointing as he was outpaced by Massa in both Q2 and Q3, ending up 0.287s behind. Spent the first 20 laps of the race behind the Brazilian, who disregarded team orders to let him past, but the fact that he edged away once he was ahead confirmed Alonso's race pace was slightly better.

Eventually managed to get past Hulkenberg and came home a distant fourth, which was the optimum result for the machinery. Saturday should have been better, Sunday couldn't have been.

Ferrari F138
Start: 5th
Finish: 10th
Strategy: 2 stops (medium/hard/hard)
Rating: 7

This was probably Massa's most impressive qualifying performance of the year relative to Alonso, winding up the pace in Q2 and Q3 to outpace him by almost three tenths. Ignored the 'multi function strategy A' instructions (ie let Alonso past), but eventually succumbed as he was slightly slower on race pace.

A lock-up at the pit entry led to him breaking the speed limit, which he accepted the blame for, meaning he fell into the clutches of three-stopping Rosberg and Button.

McLaren-Mercedes MP4-28
Start: 10th
Finish: 9th
Strategy: 3 stops (medium/hard/hard/medium)
Rating: 7

The best sector times suggest Button left around a tenth on the table in qualifying, but it would have made no difference to his position.

Endured a race of two halves, struggling with understeer and falling behind Perez, then losing further time with a slow pitstop, before coming on strongly in the second half having switched to a three-stopper. Did a good job in the final stint on fresher rubber to pass Sutil, di Resta and Massa. Mixed bag, but more good than bad.

McLaren-Mercedes MP4-28
Start: 11th
Finish: 15th
Strategy: 3 stops (medium/hard/hard/medium)
Rating: 5

Bad: dropping a wheel onto the artificial grass at the entry to Spoon Curve on Friday and crashing, forcing the team to build him a new car. Adequate: being about a tenth and a half slower than Button on raw pace.

Good: passing his team-mate shortly after their first stops. Good: avoiding Rosberg when he was released into his path. Adequate: getting back into the points hunt. Bad: hitting Rosberg and getting a puncture. Net result: not great, not terrible, no points.

Lotus-Renault E21
Start: 9th
Finish: 5th
Strategy: 2 stops (medium/hard/hard)
Rating: 7

Again, qualifying left Raikkonen with a mountain to climb. Throughout the weekend, his single-lap pace was not as strong as Grosjean's and he ended up three tenths off in Q3.

The Finn admitted to a few mistakes on a scrappy qualifying lap, but despite slipping to 11th at the start thanks to wheelspin, became increasingly strong as the race went on, pulling off some classy overtaking moves on his way to fifth. A decent result, but Grosjean showed what was possible.

Lotus-Renault E21
Start: 4th
Finish: 3rd
Strategy: 2 stops (medium/hard/hard)
Rating: 10

After last year's race, Grosjean was on the end of a tongue-lashing from Webber after a second-corner collision. This year, Webber talked up Grosjean's performance. Qualified superbly and made a flying start, leading for much of the first half of the race.

But Lotus's pace deficit meant he was always fighting a losing battle. Did an excellent job to keep the faster Webber behind for as long as he did in the final stint. A great weekend confirming his recent progress.

Mercedes F1 W04
Start: 6th
Finish: 8th
Strategy: 3 stops (medium/hard/medium/hard)
Rating: 7

Looked to be giving away a little over a tenth to Hamilton on raw pace, and so it proved in qualifying. Had a scruffy race, although only the mistake at Turn 1 on lap nine, when he understeered off the track and lost over a second, was down to him.

An unsafe release earned him a penalty and he was guiltless in the clash with Perez, but will be disappointed he couldn't capitalise on his nine-lap tyre-age advantage and pass Gutierrez.

Mercedes F1 W04
Start: 3rd
Finish: DNF
Strategy: retired (medium/hard)
Rating: 5

Qualified pretty much exactly where it looked like he was going to based on practice form, which was about as good as it was going to get considering the pace of the Red Bulls.

Unfortunately, his race was over in seconds and while he was desperately unlucky to get a puncture, he was responsible for putting himself in harm's way by moving the way he did in a bid to make up position. It was a tiny, but costly, misjudgement.

Sauber-Ferrari C32
Start: 7th
Finish: 6th
Strategy: 2 stops (medium/hard/hard)
Rating: 10

Once again, Hulkenberg capitalised on the ever-improving performance level of the Sauber to remind everyone why he is so highly regarded. His qualifying couldn't have been better and he again showed well in the race, with a bold pass of the struggling Ricciardo into 130R the highlight.

Lost places to Alonso and Raikkonen during his final stint, which was no shame given their pace advantage, especially as thanks to early moves to gain track position he was battling tyre degradation.

Sauber-Ferrari C32
Start: 14th
Finish: 7th
Strategy: 2 stops (medium/hard/hard)
Rating: 9

This points finish has been on the cards ever since the August break for the improving Mexican and the fact that he qualified only a couple of tenths behind Hulkenberg, and finished 20 seconds behind his team-mate, is testament to what a good job he did.

Most impressively, he showed himself not to be overawed in battle with more experienced hands, notably keeping Rosberg behind in the closing stages of the race and going wheel-to-wheel with Massa. A well deserved result.

Force India-Mercedes VJM06
Start: 12th
Finish: 11th
Strategy: 2 stops (medium/hard/hard)
Rating: 9

Inevitably, eyebrows will be raised by such a high rating, but after three poor weekends his performance at Suzuka was excellent in a car that was far from easy to drive.

He got the car closer to Q3 than it perhaps should have been and in the race, even though the Force India wasn't strong enough to finish in the top 10, he ended up 11th, only 10 seconds off the points. In the circumstances, one of his strongest drives of the year.

Force India-Mercedes VJM06
Start: 22nd
Finish: 14th
Strategy: 2 stops (medium/hard/hard)
Rating: 5

A taxing weekend for Sutil, who struggled to match his team-mate's pace and then earned himself a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change as a result of backing the car into the wall at the exit of Spoon Curve on Saturday morning.

Ultimately, that defined his weekend and after a good start to climb from 22nd to 15th, spent the rest of the race buried in the lower-midfield, which was a legacy of his practice shunt.

Williams-Renault FW35
Start: 15th
Finish: 16th
Strategy: 2 stops (medium/hard/hard)
Rating: 7

The Venezuelan was as delighted after qualifying as he was discouraged after the race, with the Williams showing encouraging Saturday pace but underwhelming race performance.

As usual, was combative in the race but perhaps overstepped the mark with his pass on Bottas at the final chicane, although given that by then any vague chance of points had long since faded, it at least didn't endanger a good result. Drove well, but the car simply isn't up to it.

Williams-Renault FW35
Start: 13th
Finish: 17th
Strategy: 2 stops (medium/hard/hard)
Rating: 7

The Finn's qualifying performance was excellent, shading Maldonado by less than a tenth but coming very close to getting a Williams through to Q3 in dry conditions for the first time in 2013.

The race was harder work as the car didn't seem to have the race pace to make good on its Saturday promise. Struggled with tyre life and on a two-stopper faded from 13th to 17th in the final three laps, partly thanks to being forced off-track by Maldonado.

Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR8
Start: 17th
Finish: 12th
Strategy: 3 stops (medium/hard/medium/hard)
Rating: 6

Unhappy on Friday, he was very confident about his set-up heading into qualifying. Then, the usual JEV luck kicked in and his rear brakes caught fire as a result of hydraulic pressure being maintained in the system when off the pedal.

An underwhelming first run meant he lined up well down the grid. Proved unable to make any significant inroads in the race, finishing just ahead of team-mate Ricciardo thanks to the Australian's drive-through penalty. A weekend blighted by bad luck.

Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR8
Start: 16th
Finish: 13th
Strategy: 2 stops (hard/hard/medium)
Rating: 7

Ricciardo was as delighted with his Friday performance as he was dejected about Saturday, primarily thanks to the change in wind direction pushing his trimmed-out front wing over the edge and giving him a far too weak front end.

Made a fight of it after starting on the hard compound, but a penalty for exceeding track limits passing di Resta cost him any hope of a point. Was furious about the penalty, but given recent precedents perhaps should have expected it.

Caterham-Renault CT03
Start: 20th
Finish: 18th
Strategy: 2 stops (hard/medium/hard)
Rating: 6

Pic's recently developed habit of ignoring traffic lights meant he was well and truly on the back foot even before the race start, with his 10-place grid penalty for earning three reprimands compounded by an unprecedented drive-through early in the race having left the pits under red-flag conditions in Q1.

To his credit, drove well thereafter and harnessed Caterham's pace advantage over Marussia to defeat Chilton for back-of-the-grid class honours. Needs to cut out the visits to the stewards room through.

Caterham-Renault CT03
Start: 19th
Finish: DNF
Strategy: retired (medium)
Rating: 5

Seeing as the first-corner crash that eliminated him and Bianchi was deemed a racing accident by the stewards, he can only be judged on Friday and Saturday performance.

Struggled with rear-end instability on turn-in throughout the weekend and was on the back foot after putting it in the Degner 2 gravel on Friday. The red flag compromised qualifying, but unusually given recent form didn't look to be able to match Pic's pace if both had a clear run. Character-building.

Marussia-Cosworth MR-02
Start: 21st
Finish: DNF
Strategy: retired (medium)
Rating: 5

Bianchi's weekend from hell started with him getting his elbow caught between the chassis and seat, meaning he couldn't prevent himself crashing at Degner 2.

After missing most of Friday thanks to chassis damage and with a grid penalty hanging over him, the plan to use one set of medium tyres in qualifying was ruined by the red flag, forcing him to qualify on an already past-its-best set. Was then taken out at the start, meaning he had no chance to redeem himself.

Marussia-Cosworth MR-02
Start: 18th
Finish: 19th
Strategy: 2 stops (medium/hard/hard)
Rating: 7

While circumstances played into his hands in qualifying, Chilton turned in his most impressive (if not best-placed) qualifying performance to outpace both his team-mate and the two Caterham drivers.

On his first experience of Suzuka, this was a fine effort. Always had a battle on his hands to beat even the delayed Pic and was a sitting duck thanks to his two-stop strategy, although as he admitted a small off didn't help matters. Still a decent weekend's work for the rookie.