We rate the drivers after the US GP

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

The race was, characteristically, a masterclass for F1's donut king, who celebrated his victory in now trademark style. Savvy car positioning ensured he held the lead off the line even though Grosjean's launch was better, and he nailed the early-race safety car restart to ensure he was out of DRS range.

The downside to Vettel's weekend was that his run to pole was not completely emphatic and, unusually, relied on Webber underachieving to the tune of a couple of tenths.

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

Webber had the speed to beat Vettel in qualifying largely thanks to his pace in the high-speed sweeps of the first sector, but a ragged run through the final two corners let him down.

His launch was fine, but he got outmanoeuvred by both Grosjean and Hamilton at Turn 1 and while he had the machinery under him to beat the Lotus, he never quite got close enough to attack. Fast, but the obvious imperfections cost him pole and at least second place.

Ferrari F138
Start: 6th
Finish: 5th
Strategy: 1 stop (medium/hard)
Rating: 9

The extent of his post-Abu Dhabi injuries was exaggerated in some quarters, but he was visibly worse for wear. Not that he let it show on track, even though the car probably did have the potential to be a couple of places higher on the grid had he strung together his three best sectors.

Drove superbly in the race, particularly late on with rear tyres that were well past their best, and ensured Hulkenberg stayed behind. A very convincing performance.

Ferrari F138
Start: 13th
Finish: 12th
Strategy: 2 stops (medium/hard/medium)
Rating: 5

Massa described this as his toughest weekend of the season and it was hard to argue with him. While he didn't hit anything, he struggled badly with tyre warm-up.

Although it was less of a problem in the race, he found it very difficult to make much progress, even on fresher option rubber in his final stint after rolling the dice on a second stop in the hope of fluking a safety car. A poor weekend.

McLaren-Mercedes MP4-28
Start: 15th
Finish: 10th
Strategy: 1 stop (medium/hard)
Rating: 6

This was a very tough weekend for Button, who was among those struggling to get the tyres to work in difficult conditions during qualifying. He made no excuses for his problems, which left him buried in the midfield.

Made hard work of it in the race, but to his credit kept his head down and pulled off a good pass on Ricciardo to salvage a point late on. Couldn't get the car to work and paid the price. Underwhelming.

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

Outqualifying Button for the third consecutive race was a good riposte to McLaren's decision to drop him. His driving style was far better suited to achieving the right tyre temperature, helping him outpace Button by a couple of tenths in Q2.

The race started encouragingly, as he was in the scrap with Alonso and Hulkenberg, but just as in Abu Dhabi he struggled with tyre degradation. But still a good performance, comfortably outpacing his team-mate.

Lotus-Renault E21
Start: 8th
Finish: 14th
Strategy: 2 stops (medium/hard/medium)
Rating: 7

Having never driven the Lotus before, making it into Q3 was a superb achievement even though he was half a second slower than Grosjean. On paper, 14th in the race sounds dire, but he was on course for eighth place when the front wing suddenly lost a heap of downforce early in his second stint, forcing another pitstop.

Any chance of a recovery from there was stymied by a KERS failure. A good, ultra-professional job in difficult circumstances.

Lotus-Renault E21
Start: 3rd
Finish: 2nd
Strategy: 1 stop (medium/hard)
Rating: 10

What revealed the most about Grosjean's maturity was not his good qualifying pace to be the best of the rest, or jumping to second off the line, or being the only driver able to at least keep Vettel vaguely honest.

It was the calm, clinical way that he responded to pressure from Webber's potentially faster Red Bull late on to ensure that his second place was safe. This was a weekend performance with no obvious flaws from an emerging star.

Mercedes F1 W04
Start: 12th
Finish: 9th
Strategy: 1 stop (medium/hard)
Rating: 5

Like so many others, Rosberg's weekend was dictated by tyre warm-up travails in qualifying. He struggled badly on Saturday thanks to being far too conservative in the way he attacked the rubber in the build-up to his flying laps, and the penalty was to start in the midfield.

Made little progress from there, but did prevail in a few fights at key moments to pick up two points, although his ultimate pace was not as convincing as Hamilton's. A disappointing weekend.

Mercedes F1 W04
Start: 5th
Finish: 4th
Strategy: 1 stop (medium/hard)
Rating: 9

While Hamilton's radio messages, in which he variously demanded to be left alone and given less information and then insisted he needed more, did not paint him in the most glorious light, this was actually a very good weekend from Hamilton.

Didn't have the car to finish on the podium, but managed to end up fourth, which was about all that could be expected. Probably should have beaten Hulkenberg on Saturday, but beyond that this was very much a return to form.

Sauber-Ferrari C32
Start: 4th
Finish: 6th
Strategy: 1 stop (medium/hard)
Rating: 9

Hulkenberg's qualifying performance was exceptional. But given the Sauber isn't the best off the line, he was always going to lose ground at the start and dropped to fifth. After dealing with Perez's challenge, the key battle was with Alonso, who passed him on lap 44.

Hulkenberg came back at him but couldn't quite make a last-lap move stick, which considering the state of the Ferrari's rear tyres he arguably should have done. A strong performance, but not perfect for that reason.

Sauber-Ferrari C32
Start: 20th
Finish: 13th
Strategy: 2 stops (medium/hard/medium)
Rating: 5

While making Q3 was a good effort, the fact that he failed to improve on his Q2 time and ended up three quarters of a second off his team-mate suggested there was far more to come.

Ten-place grid penalty for clumsily impeding Maldonado meant he was always on the back foot and the gamble on pitting under the early safety car didn't quite pay off, although he would've been 11th but for the collision with Vergne. Overall, a little underwhelming.

Force India-Mercedes VJM06
Start: 11th
Finish: 15th
Strategy: 2 stops (medium/hard/medium)
Rating: 7

The Force India wasn't particularly competitive at Austin, but di Resta got within a tenth of Q3 and kept himself in the hunt for a decent proportion of the race until the tyres cried enough while he was on course to score points.

He ended up having to make an extra stop, which left him 20-odd seconds off the top 10. A decent effort, and certainly better than Sutil's weekend, although ultimately he was on a hiding to nothing.

Force India-Mercedes VJM06
Start: 16th
Finish: DNF
Strategy: retired (medium)
Rating: 4

Sutil could have spared himself a lot of trouble by staying at home. A brake disc failure near the end of a messy Q1 session meant he didn't make Q2. His race didn't even last one lap, as he collided with Maldonado and speared into the wall on the back straight.

Sutil suggested an exclusion zone was required around Maldonado, although the inconclusive replays suggested it might have been the Force India that moved over on the Williams.

Williams-Renault FW35
Start: 17th
Finish: 17th
Strategy: 1 stop (medium/hard)
Rating: 4

Maldonado made no attempt to hide his unhappiness with Williams now his departure has been confirmed. But any suggestion that the team had deliberately held him back in qualifying was absurd.

The reality is he was one of a number of drivers who simply did not get on top of tyre warm-up in qualifying, leaving him a massive 1.5s off Bottas in Q1. Had an irrelevant race, although possibly wasn't to blame for the Sutil clash.

Williams-Renault FW35
Start: 9th
Finish: 8th
Strategy: 1 stop (medium/hard)
Rating: 9

Revelled in the improved balance of the Coanda-less Williams and stunned in Q1 and Q2. But ninth in Q3 was an underachievement as he lapped four tenths off his best time thanks to a moment running wide when he should have been at least seventh and maybe as high as fifth.

Drove an exemplary race and didn't look like a driver fighting for his first points finishes. A wonderful performance all weekend, save for that disappointment in Q3.

Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR8
Start: 14th
Finish: 16th
Strategy: 1 stop (hard/medium)
Rating: 5

As is often the case for JEV, the pace was there in fits and starts but he couldn't put everything together when it counted. Having matched Ricciardo in Q1, he didn't get the tyre warm-up right in the next stage of qualifying and ended up half a second slower.

His race pace was decent enough and he would have finished right with Riccardo had he not instead had a needless collision with Gutierrez on the last lap.

Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR8
Start: 10th
Finish: 11th
Strategy: 1 stop (medium/hard)
Rating: 7

As usual, was able to outperform Vergne in qualifying, although in the race both he and his team-mate turned in very similar performances and ended up dicing for 11th on the last lap.

Held his own early on and held up quicker cars, but as the race went on the Toro Rosso regressed to the mean. Inevitably, there are question marks about whether he should have kept Button behind for the final point, although by then his tyres were shot.

Caterham-Renault CT03
Start: 22nd
Finish: 20th
Strategy: 1 stop (medium/hard)
Rating: 5

Another difficult weekend for the Frenchman, who knew he had a five-place grid penalty before qualifying thanks to the team having to break a gearbox seal to make repairs. His qualifying performance was OK, but slightly slower than his team-mate.

In the race, settled in behind Bianchi and van der Garde, but picked up yet another penalty, this time for ignoring blue flags, meaning he finished 30 seconds behind. Pace was reasonable, but needs to cut out the penalties for driving infringements.

Caterham-Renault CT03
Start: 18th
Finish: 19th
Strategy: 1 stop (medium/hard)
Rating: 7

Wasn't delighted to sit out Friday morning practice in favour of Alexander Rossi at a track he'd never driven before. To his credit, he recovered well and bagged 'class pole' at the front of the Caterham/Marussia pack, one tenth ahead of Pic.

Lost out to Bianchi at the start and spent the rest of the race failing to get back past him, primarily thanks to the straightline speed of the Marussia. Lost the battle at the back, but still a decent weekend.

Marussia-Cosworth MR-02
Start: 19th
Finish: 18th
Strategy: 1 stop (medium/hard)
Rating: 8

Not for the first time this season Bianchi went into qualifying in an unpromising situation, but thanks to some set-up changes was able to pull a good lap out of the bag. That said, a small mistake in sector one prevented him outpacing van der Garde.

Jumped the Caterham at the start and then kept him behind all race. This was an excellent performance, and exactly what Marussia needs to defend its 10th place in the constructors' championship.

Marussia-Cosworth MR-02
Start: 21st
Finish: 21st
Strategy: 1 stop (medium/hard)
Rating: 4

Another weekend during which things didn't come together in qualifying. Attempting to troubleshoot set-up problems meant an unstable car, leading to him being almost nine tenths off.

That was compounded by a drive-through penalty to be served in the first five laps of the race for impeding in Q1. Held Bianchi's pace early on, but after serving the penalty fell into blue flag hell and ended up 70 seconds behind his team-mate. Performance was below the recent standards he's set for himself.