Abu Dhabi GP driver ratings

1 SEBASTIAN VETTEL
Red Bull-Renault RB10

Start: Pits
Finish: 8th
Strategy: 2 tops (soft/soft/supersoft)

Rating: 7

Eighth from the back doesn't sound too bad until you compare Vettel's race with that of Ricciardo.

While Vettel was reasonable, the Australian was superb, as has often been the case this year.

The four-time champion's pace wasn't as good as his team-mate's and he was not as incisive in traffic.

3 DANIEL RICCIARDO
Red Bull-Renault RB10

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

Rating: 10

It's hard to see what else could have been asked of Ricciardo.

He capped off a great season by demolishing his team-mate in qualifying and the race, surging from the back to take a strong fourth.

Again the Australian showed both his class in battle, and his speed.

6 NICO ROSBERG
Mercedes F1 W05

Start: 1st
Finish: 14th
Strategy: 2 stops (supersoft/soft/soft)

Rating: 8

Rosberg did exactly what he needed to in qualifying, bagging yet another pole position, but wheelspin at the start cost him dearly.

He dealt well with the ERS loss and, considering the problem, managed to extract some good pace from the car, but was on a hiding to nothing.

He stuck at it to the end in an ever-slower car.

44 LEWIS HAMILTON
Mercedes F1 W05

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

Rating: 9

Hamilton needed to make sure that he avoided a mistake in Abu Dhabi and that he dealt with the pressures of the title decider. And he did just that.

Not as fast as Rosberg in qualifying, but did exactly what he needed to in the race to seal the title with a well-deserved win.

7 KIMI RAIKKONEN
Ferrari F14 T

Start: 7th
Finish: 10th
Strategy: 2 stops (supersoft/soft/soft)

Rating: 7

The Finn outqualified Alonso for only the third time this season, although the fact that he seemed fractionally slower than the Spaniard in the race, albeit only by a tiny margin, suggested this was more down to Alonso's mistake in Q3.

Aside from a good start, Raikkonen had a tough race, but he followed his team-mate home and kept Magnussen behind.

14 FERNANDO ALONSO
Ferrari F14 T

Start: 8th
Finish: 9th
Strategy: 2 stops (supersoft/soft/soft)

Rating: 7

Alonso's valedictory outing for Ferrari ended, appropriately enough, with disappointment.

He went off on his final qualifying lap, then had a solid but unspectacular race.

While he did beat Raikkonen on Sunday, there was an air of going through the motions - not that a perfect drive would have made a vast difference.

8 ROMAIN GROSJEAN
Lotus-Renault E22

Start: 18th
Finish: 13th
Strategy: 2 stops (supersoft/soft/soft)

Rating: 8

The Lotus driver knew he was facing a 20-place grid penalty early in the weekend thanks to changing multiple power unit components for sixth examples.

There was never much chance of qualifying strongly enough to avoid having to convert part of that into a drive-through.

From there, Grosjean caught the cars he could and nicked a place off Rosberg on the last lap.

13 PASTOR MALDONADO
Lotus-Renault E22

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

Rating: 7

Maldonado complained about a lack of front-tyre temperature in qualifying, ending up outside of the dust-up for a Q2 place.

His race was fine as far as it went, which was only 26 laps before he retired a Lotus that by then resembled a bonfire.

Prior to that, he did a decent job and will be pleased to see the back of his 2014 car.

20 KEVIN MAGNUSSEN
McLaren-Mercedes MP4-29

Start: 9th
Finish: 11th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/supersoft/soft)

Rating: 6

The Dane had a difficult weekend, just missing out on nailing a good enough lap to make it to Q3 on his sole attempt in the second segment of qualifying.

He got caught up in things on the first lap, although not through his own misadventure, and with some damage it was always going to be difficult to recover.

He probably still had the car to beat a Ferrari or two, though.

22 JENSON BUTTON
McLaren-Mercedes MP4-29

Start: 6th
Finish: 5th
Strategy: 2 stops (supersoft/soft/soft)

Rating: 8

If Abu Dhabi 2014 is to stand as his last weekend as a grand prix driver, then Button has reason to be proud of going out on a relative high.

While qualifying could have been slightly better (a tenth would have gained him two places), there's little to fault about his race.

Fifth was probably as good as it was going to get for McLaren this weekend.

11 SERGIO PEREZ
Force India-Mercedes VJM07

Start: 11th
Finish: 7th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/soft/supersoft)

Rating: 8

Perez looked marginally the stronger Force India driver during practice and qualifying, but lost out to Hulkenberg in the race.

This made little difference to the team, given the pair finished just one place apart.

While his overall pace was similar to his team-mate's, the Mexican did leak laptime on occasions, particularly around the pitstops, and that added up.

27 NICO HULKENBERG
Force India-Mercedes VJM07

Start: 12th
Finish: 6th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/soft/supersoft)

Rating: 9

This was a strong finish to the season for Hulkenberg, although qualifying could have been slightly better.

Once in the race, he drove superbly, save for getting caught up in an incident with Magnussen that earned him a five-second penalty.

Even so, Hulkenberg was able to finish almost 10 seconds clear of Perez.

21 ESTEBAN GUTIERREZ
Sauber-Ferrari C33

Start: 14th
Finish: 15th
Strategy: 2 stops (supersoft/soft/soft)

Rating: 7

As Sutil proved, there was enough pace in the Sauber to nick a Q2 place, but Gutierrez wasn't able to find the extra tenth needed to get there.

He performed decently enough in the race, but eventually lost out in his battle with Grosjean, although he was comfortably ahead of team-mate Sutil.

99 ADRIAN SUTIL
Sauber-Ferrari C33

Start: 13th
Finish: 16th
Strategy: 3 stops (supersoft/soft/soft/soft)

Rating: 6

Sutil, driving in possibly his final grand prix, did what he could in qualifying, slipping into Q2.

He was never going to get much higher than he did, but he did underperform in the second segment of qualifying.

The race was compromised by hitting Magnussen early on and he struggled with tyre degradation. It was a disappointing end to a terrible year.

25 JEAN-ERIC VERGNE
Toro Rosso-Renault STR9

Start: 10th
Finish: 12th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft/soft/soft/supersoft)

Rating: 6

If this is to be Vergne's last grand prix, and it really shouldn't be because he's too good a driver to be lost from the grid, he gave a good account of himself.

The highlight was his brief battle with Ricciardo, although it was in a pointless cause. But he did fail to match Kvyat's fundamental pace.

26 DANIIL KVYAT
Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR9

Start: 5th
Finish: DNF
Strategy: retired (supersoft/soft/retired)

Rating: 8

Kvyat performed excellently in qualifying, matching his season's best fifth on the grid thanks to the two Red Bulls being excluded, although his final Q3 lap should perhaps have been a tenth or two better.

He slipped to seventh at the start, but was set up well for a run at a top-10 finish when he retired with an ignition problem.

Again, Kvyat showed his speed but was frustrated by problems in the race.

19 FELIPE MASSA
Williams-Mercedes FW36

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

Rating: 9

Aside from not building sufficient front-tyre temperature ahead of his final Q3 run because of traffic, which cost him a likely third - or perhaps even second - on the grid, Massa had a superb weekend.

He looked to have the edge on Bottas on raw pace in qualifying had he not had that Q3 problem, and drove a great race - coming close to challenging for an unexpected win.

77 VALTTERI BOTTAS
Williams-Renault FW36

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

Rating: 8

While Bottas did sign off a superb season with his sixth podium finish, it was not the most compelling of his top-three performances.

He seemed not quite to have the same raw pace as Massa, even though he outqualified him, and after suffering clutch slip at the start had to fight back.

That this might be considered a good, rather than great, race for Bottas says a lot about how much is now expected of him.

10 KAMUI KOBAYASHI
Caterham-Renault CT05

Start: 16th
Finish: DNF
Strategy: retired (supersoft/soft/supersoft/retired)

Rating: 7

Kobayashi did a characteristically effective job in the Caterham, but with no Marussias to race and the midfield in the distance, he inevitably had a quiet race before retiring.

Again, he showed he is a very capable grand prix driver, but could do little beyond that.

46 WILL STEVENS
Caterham-Renault CT05

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

Rating: 8

Ninety-five laps of Silverstone in July, plus a similar number in the 2013 car a year earlier, was hardly the perfect preparation for Stevens.

But he acquitted himself very well, qualifying half a second off Kobayashi and then doing a very tidy job in the race.

While Kobayashi was a little faster in the race, as you would expect, Stevens' times still compared reasonably well.