AUTOSPORT's Austrian GP driver ratings

Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull returned to the garage early again © LAT

1 SEBASTIAN VETTEL
Red Bull-Renault RB10

Start: 12th
Finish: DNF
Strategy: retired (supersoft/soft/soft/retired)

Rating: 6

By his own admission, he wasn't quite as fast as his team-mate, although the eight-place difference in qualifying exaggerated the picture as the gap was just 0.163s in Q2.

Race pace after his early engine reset was decent enough but nothing more than a par weekend.

3 DANIEL RICCIARDO
Red Bull-Renault RB10

Start: 5th
Finish: 8th
Strategy: 2 stops (supersoft/soft/soft)

Rating: 7

Speed-wise, Ricciardo was convincing and definitively had the legs of Vettel.

His race performance wasn't quite up to his recent standards, though.

There were a couple of messy moments, notably running wide at the first corner, costing him ground but his last-lap pass on Hulkenberg partly made up for it.

Rosberg's win stretched his championship lead to 29 points © LAT

6 NICO ROSBERG
Mercedes F1 W05

Start: 3rd
Finish: 1st
Strategy: 2 stops (supersoft/soft/soft)

Rating: 8

Yellow flags on his final Q3 run don't excuse the fact his banker should have been a tenth or two better.

But his race drive was measured and level-headed, managing the cooling problems of the Mercedes well and easing his way to a well-judged victory.

Good but not perfect.

44 LEWIS HAMILTON
Mercedes F1 W05

Start: 9th
Finish: 2nd
Strategy: 2 stops (supersoft/soft/soft)

Rating: 7

Yes, he salvaged second and pushed Rosberg in the race, but two errors under pressure in Q3 were what really cost him given that, fundamentally, he appeared to have a slight edge in terms of pace.

Great recovery only partly compensates for the original mistakes.

Raikkonen had another frustrating race to minor points © LAT

7 KIMI RAIKKONEN
Ferrari F14 T

Start: 8th
Finish: 10th
Strategy: 2 stops (supersoft/soft/soft)

Rating: 4

The bottom line is that Raikkonen finished 30 seconds behind Alonso and was unable to string together a serious qualifying lap because of small errors.

Moaned about the brakes and tyre problems but scoring one point when your team-mate is fifth is sub-standard.

14 FERNANDO ALONSO
Ferrari F14 T

Start: 4th
Finish: 5th
Strategy: 2 stops (supersoft/soft/soft)

Rating: 10

The Ferrari wasn't a Mercedes- or Williams-beater, so for Alonso to be best-of-the-rest in qualifying and the race represents something of a class victory.

Particularly good was his soft-tyre management, which did allow him to give Massa something to think about late on.

Grosjean had to come through the backmarkers after a pitlane start © XPB

8 ROMAIN GROSJEAN
Lotus-Renault E22

Start: 22nd (pits)
Finish: 14th
Strategy: 2 stops (supersoft/soft/soft)

Rating: 6

Was outqualified for the first time this season by Maldonado, with a gearbox glitch not helping.

Made decent progress after starting from the pits. Drove well in the race battling various engine-related glitches that made his life miserable.

Didn't have the car under him to show his class.

13 PASTOR MALDONADO
Lotus-Renault E22

Start: 13th
Finish: 12th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/soft/supersoft)

Rating: 8

Arguably this was Maldonado's strongest performance of the season, qualifying and finishing at what was realistically the upper limit of what was possible with a Lotus, which basically means beating Saubers, Marussias and Caterhams.

Would have been interesting to see how he did in a straight fight with Grosjean.

Magnussen demonstrated that McLaren is making progress © LAT

20 KEVIN MAGNUSSEN
McLaren-Mercedes MP4-29

Start: 6th
Finish: 7th
Strategy: 2 stops (supersoft/soft/soft)

Rating: 8

This was Magnussen's most convincing weekend since he finished second in Melbourne.

Qualified well, albeit with a mistake at the last corner costing him a place or two on the grid, and showed improved tyre-management abilities, particularly on supersofts relative to Button.

Not perfect, but a strong showing.

22 JENSON BUTTON
McLaren-Mercedes MP4-29

Start: 11th
Finish: 11th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/soft/supersoft)

Rating: 5

Offered missing almost all of FP3 with a rear-brake problem and traffic as mitigation for missing Q3 but no guarantee he'd have matched Magnussen.

Long soft-tyre stints were good, but couldn't make progress in traffic mid-race and didn't have the pace on the supersofts. Solid but nothing more.

Perez spent a long spell in the race lead © XPB

11 SERGIO PEREZ
Force India-Mercedes VJM07

Start: 15th
Finish: 6th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/soft/supersoft)

Rating: 9

While not quite as fast as Hulkenberg over a single lap, he was on a different level in terms of tyre management.

He executed his 'inverted' strategy well after a good first stint on softs, kept it clean and nailed Magnussen to take a good result. But qualifying did let him down slightly.

27 NICO HULKENBERG
Force India-Mercedes VJM07

Start: 10th
Finish: 9th
Strategy: 2 stops (supersoft/soft/soft)

Rating: 6

Pace wasn't a problem, although running off track at Turn 8 meant he didn't set a time in Q3.

But his Achilles' Heel is rear-tyre management and this was what led to him having a lacklustre race.

Even though his tyres were shot, he should have kept Ricciardo behind.

A pitstop calamity added to Gutierrez's troubles © XPB

21 ESTEBAN GUTIERREZ
Sauber-Ferrari C33

Start: 18th
Finish: 19th
Strategy: 2 stops (supersoft/soft/soft)

Rating: 5

His qualifying performance was mediocre, ending up just over half a second off team-mate Sutil, although that didn't make much difference in terms of grid position.

Race pace was nothing special, but he wasn't to blame for the pitstop blunder that condemned him to last.

99 ADRIAN SUTIL
Sauber-Ferrari C33

Start: 17th
Finish: 13th
Strategy: 2 stops (supersoft/soft/soft)

Rating: 8

Considering the pace of the Sauber, Sutil did a pretty good job all weekend (especially since the team inadvertently told him to stop the car shortly after his pitstop when it thought it was radioing Gutierrez).

Maybe he could have nipped into Q2, but that's the only real criticism.

Vergne and Vettel both had unhappy weekends at Red Bull's own event © XPB

25 JEAN-ERIC VERGNE
Toro Rosso-Renault STR9

Start: 14th
Finish: DNF
Strategy: retired (supersoft/soft/soft)

Rating: 4

Considering Vergne has been an unsung hero this season, his performance was strangely subdued.

Never looked as comfortable with the car under braking as his team-mate. But it was difficult to judge his race performance prior to retirement given his braking problems.

Even so, worst weekend of the year.

26 DANIIL KVYAT
Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR9

Start: 7th
Finish: DNF
Strategy: retired (supersoft/soft/retired)

Rating: 8

Kvyat's pace was excellent and without the loss of the DRS in Q3 he might have been as high as fifth on the grid.

He can only really be faulted for a poor getaway in the race, which dropped him to 10th but he would have scored without his suspension problem.

Massa leads the field into Turn 1 from his first pole since 2008 © LAT

19 FELIPE MASSA
Williams-Mercedes FW36

Start: 1st
Finish: 4th
Strategy: 2 stops (supersoft/soft/soft)

Rating: 8

Unlike his rivals, he delivered when it really mattered in qualifying to take a superb pole position.

Led well early on, but a so-so in-lap multiplied the time lost to an average stop and meant he dropped to fourth.

Pace was fundamentally good, but he's marked down for not quite nailing it at key pressure points in the race.

77 VALTTERI BOTTAS
Williams-Renault FW36

Start: 2nd
Finish: 3rd
Strategy: 2 stops (supersoft/soft/soft)

Rating: 9

Pole was possible, but it was the time lost earlier in the lap that he was trying to make up for rather than the brief wide moment on his final flier that cost him.

Raced excellently, keeping his head to repass Rosberg on lap one and nailing two strong in-laps.

Chilton pressures Kobayashi for 16th © LAT

4 MAX CHILTON
Marussia-Ferrari MR-03

Start: 22nd
Finish: 17th
Strategy: 1 stop (soft/supersoft)

Rating: 6

Was almost four tenths off Bianchi in qualifying, although he did have some legitimate problems that cost him a few tenths.

He drove solidly in the race, although he was frustrated not to be able to have an extra lap to capitalise on Kobayashi's tyre problems to nick 16th.

17 JULES BIANCHI
Marussia-Ferrari MR-03

Start: 19th
Finish: 15th
Strategy: 1 stop (soft/supersoft)

Rating: 7

Wasn't particularly happy all weekend with the feel of the car under braking, but while it was close he did enough to keep the lead Caterham of Kobayashi behind.

Pace was solid enough in the race and he had to push on given the Kobayashi threat. Decent job.

Ericsson had a solid weekend © XPB

9 MARCUS ERICSSON
Caterham-Renault CT05

Start: 21st
Finish: 18th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/supersoft/soft)

Rating: 6

After losing much of FP1 and then hitting traffic on Saturday afternoon, his qualifying deficit to Kobayashi was stretched.

Perhaps he could have found a way to be closer to Chilton, but he did lose time at his final pitstop waiting for traffic to clear. Solid for a rookie.

10 KAMUI KOBAYASHI
Caterham-Renault CT05

Start: 20th
Finish: 16th
Strategy: 1 stop (supersoft/soft)

Rating: 7

Qualified well, although he might have done even better had he not had to back out of it in Turn 8 to avoid exceeding track limits.

Tried to make a wildly optimistic strategy work but tyres plunged off a cliff late on and he did well to keep Chilton at bay.