AUTOSPORT's Italian GP driver ratings

1 SEBASTIAN VETTEL
Red Bull-Renault RB10

Start: 8th
Finish: 6th
Strategy: 1 stop (medium/hard)

Rating: 8

Once again, Vettel was beaten by his team-mate. But this was partly down to an early stop that, combined with Ricciardo's late stop, led to the Australian having a grip advantage in the closing stages.

His raw pace was stronger than Ricciardo's, but the aggressive strategy didn't pay off.

3 DANIEL RICCIARDO
Red Bull-Renault RB10

Start: 9th
Finish: 5th
Strategy: 1 stop (medium/hard)

Rating: 8

Deserves credit for some virtuoso overtaking manoeuvres, not to mention how well he made his medium tyres last in stint one and then the incisive way he charged to fifth.

But he did not quite have the same raw pace as Vettel even though he came through to beat him thanks to a brilliantly-executed pass.

6 NICO ROSBERG
Mercedes F1 W05

Start: 2nd
Finish: 2nd
Strategy: 1 stop (medium/hard)

Rating: 7

Second was probably Rosberg's rightful place. He was quick, but he simply didn't have the same turn of speed as his team-mate.

He made the mistake, the second of the race, under pressure, but even if he hadn't, this was probably not going to be his weekend.

Even so, did what he had to do and minimised the damage.

44 LEWIS HAMILTON
Mercedes F1 W05

Start: 1st
Finish: 1st
Strategy: 1 stop (medium/hard)

Rating: 10

An electronic problem cost him track time in practice two, with a different glitch ruining his start, but he always looked to have a speed advantage over Rosberg.

It was his most convincing weekend since Malaysia.

7 KIMI RAIKKONEN
Ferrari F14 T

Start: 11th
Finish: 9th
Strategy: 1 stop (medium/hard)

Rating: 4

Looked pretty comfortable with the Ferrari on turn-in, but errors at the second chicane during Q2 led to him failing to make the top 10 shootout.

Raikkonen then should have been able to capitalise on the frenetic battle ahead of him to haul himself into the fight.

14 FERNANDO ALONSO
Ferrari F14 T

Start: 7th
Finish: DNF
Strategy: retired (medium/hard/retired)

Rating: 9

Alonso did everything that could be expected, comfortably outperforming Raikkonen in qualifying and then having a decent race until an ERS problem forced him to retire for the first time since April 2013.

Not unusual for him to feel let down by a Ferrari.

8 ROMAIN GROSJEAN
Lotus-Renault E22

Start: 17th
Finish: 16th
Strategy: 1 stop (hard/medium)

Rating: 7

Grosjean found the Lotus a real handful at Monza, which is not a surprise given how unpredictable it was.

An intercooler problem compromised practice three and restricted him to only a single run in Q1, then he battled a downshift problem in the race. He fought gamely on what was a doomed weekend.

13 PASTOR MALDONADO
Lotus-Renault E22

Start: 16th
Finish: 14th
Strategy: 1 stop (medium/hard)

Rating: 9

The Lotus looked more of a nightmare than usual at Monza, but after a decent effort in qualifying to keep ahead of the Marussias and Caterhams (yes, that's how poor the car was) Maldonado drove arguably his best race of the season to beat Sutil.

A wide moment at Lesmo 2, which cost little, was the only slight error.

20 KEVIN MAGNUSSEN
McLaren-Mercedes MP4-29

Start: 5th
Finish: 10th
Strategy: 1 stop (medium/hard)

Rating: 7

Another weekend in which Magnussen had excellent pace and, mostly, distinguished himself in battle, but that was compromised by slightly overstepping the mark when racing closely.

He can argue he was unfortunate to be penalised, but given his record over the season he needs to be very wary of where the line is.

22 JENSON BUTTON
McLaren-Mercedes MP4-29

Start: 6th
Finish: 8th
Strategy: 1 stop (medium/hard)

Rating: 7

Another solid weekend's work from Button, who for the second race in succession finished behind his team-mate but ended up ahead of him thanks to Magnussen being penalised.

Decent, but he didn't get the absolute maximum out of the car.

11 SERGIO PEREZ
Force India-Mercedes VJM07

Start: 10th
Finish: 7th
Strategy: 1 stop (medium/hard)

Rating: 8

This was probably one of Perez's better weekends of the year. He nailed a great lap on his first Q2 run to get into the top 10 and then dealt with fuel and tyre management outstandingly well while in battle.

But it's possible with a perfect run he'd have beaten a Red Bull or two.

27 NICO HULKENBERG
Force India-Mercedes VJM07

Start: 13th
Finish: 12th
Strategy: 1 stop (hard/medium)

Rating: 5

Couldn't get the tyres into the ideal temperature window in qualifying and complained of a lack of grip, which was compounded by traffic.

Hulkenberg had a lacklustre race, although blamed some damage sustained early on for not having the kind of performance Perez did.

21 ESTEBAN GUTIERREZ
Sauber-Ferrari C33

Start: 15th
Finish: 20th
Strategy: 2 stops (hard/medium/medium)

Rating: 4

The weekend started encouragingly, but seemed to get worse for the Mexican.

He arguably underdelivered in qualifying having looked to have the pace to beat Sutil, and he struggled with the tyres and brakes in the race.

Deserved to get a penalty for needlessly chopping Grosjean.

99 ADRIAN SUTIL
Sauber-Ferrari C33

Start: 14th
Finish: 15th
Strategy: 1 stop (hard/medium)

Rating: 7

Sutil looked like the weaker of the two Sauber drivers until Q2, when he managed to get ahead of Gutierrez.

The Sauber's race pace wasn't quite as good as its single-lap pace and Sutil gradually dropped back in his race-long battle with Maldonado.

25 JEAN-ERIC VERGNE
Toro Rosso-Renault STR9

Start: 12th
Finish: 13th
Strategy: 1 stop (medium/hard)

Rating: 6

Vergne didn't seem capable of extracting quite the performance out of the Toro Rosso that his team-mate did.

He did a solid enough job, but was largely the definition of midfield anonymity as he struggled for grip.

26 DANIIL KVYAT
Toro Rosso-Renault STR9

Start: 21st
Finish: 11th
Strategy: 1 stop (hard/medium)

Rating: 8

The Russian qualified well and recovered from a 10-place grid penalty superbly.

After a marathon first stint, Kvyat was on a charge late on and seemed set to relieve Magnussen of 10th place once the McLaren driver's penalty was factored in, only to suffer a braking problem.

19 FELIPE MASSA
Williams-Mercedes FW36

Start: 4th
Finish: 3rd
Strategy: 1 stop (medium/hard)

Rating: 9

It has been a long time coming, but while Massa didn't look quite as impressive as Bottas, he delivered a good qualifying lap and then an absolutely faultless race.

Only had to bring it home after establishing himself in third, but deserved a clean run for once.

77 VALTTERI BOTTAS
Williams-Mercedes FW36

Start: 3rd
Finish: 4th
Strategy: 1 stop (medium/hard)

Rating: 9

Bottas looked absolutely stunning in the low-downforce Williams, controlling a car that was quick but required precision.

Wasn't at fault for the poor start and struggled with tyre warm-up initially, but drove a canny, clean race to salvage the best result he could.

4 MAX CHILTON
Marussia-Ferrari MR-03

Start: 20th
Finish: DNF
Strategy: retired (medium/retired)

Rating: 3

Chilton struggled with the balance of the car in qualifying, meaning he was well off Bianchi's pace.

He did well to run ahead of Grosjean for a few laps but has only himself to blame for misjudging his braking, clattering over the speed bumps at the second chicane and being launched into the gravel.

17 JULES BIANCHI
Marussia-Ferrari MR-03

Start: 19th
Finish: 18th
Strategy: 1 stop (medium/hard)

Rating: 7

It was a surprise to see him beaten by Kobayashi, although the Caterham has generally been stronger on the straights than the Marussia over the season.

Bianchi drove well enough, but couldn't get close enough to his Japanese rival to make a real race of it.

9 MARCUS ERICSSON
Caterham-Renault CT05

Start: 22nd/pits
Finish: 19th
Strategy: 1 stop (hard/medium)

Rating: 5

Now with the same car spec as his team-mate, albeit still with a 10kg weight penalty thanks to his relative size, Ericsson struggled with car balance all weekend.

He drove a solid, unspectacular race after a pitlane start for foolishly not heeding yellow flags in practice three.

10 KAMUI KOBAYASHI
Caterham-Renault CT05

Start: 18th
Finish: 17th
Strategy: 1 stop (medium/hard)

Rating: 8

After a last-minute call-up to retake his seat, Kobayashi flew in from Japan and drove superbly.

An outstanding qualifying lap laid the groundwork for a strong race drive to keep the potentially faster Marussia of Bianchi at bay. Showed his worth to Caterham.