We rate the drivers after the Indian GP

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

While the Red Bull was comfortably the class of the field, this was a drive fitting of a champion. Vettel never looked like missing out on pole position, but the decision to dump the soft Pirellis after just two laps meant his strategy hung on him clearing slower cars swiftly.

That's far easier said than done, even in a quick car, but typically he made it look easy. A perfect drive topped off by his flamboyant celebration guarantees a maximum score.

Red Bull-Renault RB9
Start: 4th
Finish: DNF
Strategy: retired (medium/soft/medium)
Rating: 7

An excellent qualifying lap on the medium compound potentially set him up for a run at victory.

A poor start, then sliding into Raikkonen and clipping Alonso at the first corner meant that once the soft runners had got out of the way, Webber was not as far up the road as he should have been. After that, drove well and would have been a worthy second had his alternator lasted, even though he didn't have Vettel's pace.

Ferrari F138
Start: 8th
Finish: 11th
Strategy: 3 stops (medium/medium/soft/medium)
Rating: 7

It's difficult to judge Alonso's speed given his qualifying pace was defined by opting to start on the slower medium compound, and in the race light wing damage caused by Webber, followed by his own error in sliding into Button later on the first lap, hobbled his Ferrari.

To his credit, he kept his head down and came close to nabbing a point, but hit a brick wall when he caught Ricciardo and was unable to get past.

Ferrari F138
Start: 5th
Finish: 4th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/medium/medium)
Rating: 9

This stands as one of Massa's strongest weekends of the year. While outqualifying Alonso was down to running on the quicker tyre in Q3, he drove an excellent race, jumping to second on the first lap ahead of both Mercedes and keeping the quicker Rosberg behind him until being jumped in the pits.

Could he have made up the two seconds to Grosjean? Perhaps, but no clear evidence he should have beaten the one-stopping Lotus.

McLaren-Mercedes MP4-28
Start: 10th
Finish: 14th
Strategy: 3 stops (medium/soft/medium/medium)
Rating: 6

Came into the weekend talking up a change of set-up philosophy that might offer the McLaren a boost in competitiveness.

It didn't really deliver, but the team did extract a decent level of performance from the car and Button would surely have been in the mix for a top-six finish had he not been clattered by Alonso on the opening lap, which gave him a slow puncture and forced an early pitstop. From there, he had no chance.

McLaren-Mercedes MP4-28
Start: 9th
Finish: 5th
Strategy: 2 stops (medium/soft/medium)
Rating: 9

This was surely Perez's most convincing weekend as a McLaren driver. With both him and team-mate Button qualifying on the mediums, Perez was three tenths faster and went on to drive an extremely good race.

There were no mistakes, his speed was consistently good, his pacing during that long first stint excellent and thanks to an excellent piece of opportunism as he happened upon the ailing Raikkonen, he managed to get ahead of Hamilton to bag his best finish of the season.

Lotus-Renault E21
Start: 6th
Finish: 7th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/medium/medium)
Rating: 8

Admitted struggling to get the car to handle as he wanted thanks to the camber limits, but made some progress and qualified well.

His race turned into a gamble on tyre life, which ultimately backfired although he didn't help his cause by racing team-mate Grosjean, risking contact as he struggled with a lack of rear grip. What really cost him was having to make his first stop early in search of cool air for his overheating brakes.

Lotus-Renault E21
Start: 17th
Finish: 3rd
Strategy: 1 stop (soft/medium)
Rating: 8

It's difficult to judge whether Grosjean should have escaped Q1. On the slower-compound tyre, the team misjudged where the cut-off time was, but Grosjean threw away at least a couple of tenths on his key lap, which represented half of the deficit. He excelled in the race.

Nobody made the softs last as long off the start and his pace was consistent on his long second stint. Also showed good awareness to run wide to avoid contact with Raikkonen late on.

Mercedes F1 W04
Start: 2nd
Finish: 2nd
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/medium/medium)
Rating: 9

While Rosberg did make heavy weather of his battle with Massa, being passed by him on the opening lap and relying on undercutting him in the pits to get ahead, there's very little to criticise in his weekend.

To start and finish second on a weekend where Red Bull was unbeatable was as good as it was going to get. Was over half a minute clear of Hamilton by the finish thanks to his team-mate not being able to pass Massa.

Mercedes F1 W04
Start: 3rd
Finish: 6th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/medium/medium)
Rating: 6

An underwhelming weekend for the subdued Hamilton. In qualifying he couldn't quite match Rosberg, albeit only by seven hundredths of a second, and fell in behind him at the start. Where his race differed from Rosberg was that his team-mate undercut Massa and could get on with the rest of his race.

Hamilton pitted on the same laps as the Ferrari, took too much out of his final set of tyres trying to overtake him and was ambushed by Perez late on.

Sauber-Ferrari C32
Start: 7th
Finish: 19th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft/medium/medium/soft)
Rating: 8

But for a brake disc problem forcing his retirement late on, Hulkenberg would have finished seventh or eighth - a good return given the Sauber didn't seem quite as competitive in India as it had been in the previous two races. Climbed to fifth on the first lap and, as usual, held his own among the bigger teams.

Sauber-Ferrari C32
Start: 16th
Finish: 15th
Strategy: 2 stops (medium/medium/soft)
Rating: 5

After the highs of Suzuka, this was an unwelcome step back for Gutierrez who looked too ragged at times and didn't show the turn of pace now expected of him. Relative circuit unfamiliarity has to be factored in (although he did drive in FP1 last year), but even so his pace was disappointing.

A jump start didn't help his cause and meant he was battling at the back of the midfield, where he showed a willingness to defend robustly.

Force India-Mercedes VJM06
Start: 12th
Finish: 8th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/medium/medium)
Rating: 8

With Force India now hovering just outside the top 10 on pure performance, di Resta's 12th place on the grid was a good return, and after the bold decision to pit to get off the soft tyres at the end of the first lap, he drove a very effective and unflustered race.

Almost nothing to choose between him and Sutil, who opted for a similar strategy in reverse, although di Resta edged it in the race after passing his team-mate on lap 44.

Force India-Mercedes VJM06
Start: 13th
Finish: 9th
Strategy: 1 stop (medium/soft)
Rating: 8

Qualified and finished right behind his team-mate and in the race ran marathon stints of 41 laps on the medium rubber off the start and then 19 on the soft to the finish.

While he was fractionally off his team-mate on both Saturday and Sunday, the difference was close to imperceptible and he arguably had the trickier strategic job in the race given he had to pull off a one-stopper, a challenge he executed extremely effectively.

Williams-Renault FW35
Start: 18th
Finish: 12th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/medium/medium)
Rating: 9

Complained about traffic during Q1, in which he was well over half a second off team-mate Bottas. But his race performance was far stronger, taking a relatively uncompetitive Williams to less than three seconds off the points on a conventional strategy.

He took the fight to quicker cars and did as much as anyone could ask of the machinery. But had he been two or three places up the grid, perhaps those few seconds might have been easier to find.

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

Turned in an excellent lap in Q1 to make it to the second segment of qualifying, but it was disappointing that he wasn't able to improve on that pace in Q2 after traffic compromised his tyre temperatures. That said, it probably made little difference to his qualifying position.

Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR8
Start: 14th
Finish: 13th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/medium/medium)
Rating: 6

After a difficult time during Friday afternoon practice, which he admitted knocked his confidence, Vergne recovered pretty well in qualifying although he was still almost three tenths off team-mate Ricciardo.

Pitting on the first lap, and getting rid of the soft tyre, made life difficult for him and he was never able to recover during the race even though his pace was fine relative to Ricciardo. The net result was another patchy showing for Vergne, who still struggles to put together complete weekends.

Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR8
Start: 11th
Finish: 10th
Strategy: 2 stops (medium/soft/medium)
Rating: 8

The Australian perhaps should have scraped into Q3 as he didn't quite manage to string his three best sector times together in qualifying. But there were no such question marks in the race as he held off the hobbled Alonso in the final stint of the race to bag his and Toro Rosso's first point since the Italian Grand Prix.

The two Force Indias weren't far up the road and arguably beatable, but Ricciardo was pretty happy with his own performance.

Caterham-Renault CT03
Start: 21st
Finish: DNF
Strategy: retired (soft/medium/medium)
Rating: 5

Pic endured one of those weekends where, for a variety of reasons, things never really got going. After struggling with the set-up on Friday, he was much happier with the car in Saturday morning practice, but traffic in Q1 caused him some problems.

His race was compromised almost before it had started when he suffered a puncture from van der Garde clipping him. A second puncture and then a loss of hydraulic pressure added insult to injury. Pace was fine, but nothing spectacular.

Caterham-Renault CT03
Start: 20th
Finish: DNF
Strategy: retired (soft)
Rating: 6

The Dutchman described Friday as one of his best of the year, but on Saturday struggled with front-tyre warm-up and therefore understeer in sector one in qualifying. Despite that, he still outqualified Pic, although the car certainly had the potential to be ahead of the Marussia of Bianchi.

For the second race in a row, he didn't reach the end of the first lap, blaming Chilton for their clash while he chased the two Marussias on the run out of the first corner.

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

Struggled on Friday with a suspension problem that hindered him all day, but pulled a stunning lap out of the bag in qualifying to beat both Caterhams and put his struggling team-mate firmly in the shade.

The race was harder work, but his pace was good even though he was never able to reassert himself over Chilton after losing the position at the first stop. Another good weekend's work for the rookie, with his qualifying lap the undoubted highlight.

Marussia-Cosworth MR-02
Start: 22nd
Finish: 17th
Strategy: 2 stops (medium/medium/soft)
Rating: 8

There were two sides to Chilton's weekend. The first was a difficult Friday/Saturday, with chronic understeer on day one meaning he never quite caught up.

Was four tenths off his own theoretical best in Q1 and over a second behind Bianchi, but made up for it in the race after surviving an early clash with van der Garde by pressing home the slight strategic advantage of starting on the mediums despite nursing a braking problem. Probably his best race of the year.