Australian Grand Prix driver ratings

6 NICO ROSBERG
Mercedes F1 W07

Start: 2nd
Finish: 1st
Strategy: 2 stops (super-soft/soft/medium)

Rating: 8

Rosberg has driven better than this and not won, but his victory here was well executed even though it relied on Ferrari capitulation. But that capitulation was less likely without the pressure Rosberg applied from behind.

He gets marked up for starting better than Hamilton and driving faultlessly after Turn 1; loses some for crashing in practice and qualifying well adrift of his team-mate.

44 LEWIS HAMILTON
Mercedes F1 W07

Start: 1st
Finish: 2nd
Strategy: 2 stops* (super-soft/medium)

Rating: 8

Hamilton ended Rosberg's six-race pole streak from last year with a dominant display in qualifying, proving he's back on his game after a poor end to 2015.

The champion loses marks for a bad start to the race, though he was unlucky to lose so much extra ground at Turn 1. Hamilton never panics though, and deserves credit for a level-headed recovery drive.

5 SEBASTIAN VETTEL
Ferrari SF16-H

Start: 3rd
Finish: 3rd
Strategy: 3 stops (super-soft/super-soft/super-soft/soft)

Rating: 7

A rare case of one that got away from Vettel. Qualifying exaggerated the qualifying gap to Mercedes, but he made up for that immediately.

The performance was classic Vettel until the stoppage - controlling from the front, but Ferrari's obsession with the super-soft tyre undid everything. Should he have made a better call behind the wheel? He also loses points for his minor off when chasing Hamilton near the end.

7 KIMI RAIKKONEN
Ferrari SF16-H

Start: 4th
Finish: Retired

Strategy: (super-soft/super-soft/retired)*

Rating: 6

Raikkonen struggled with tyre warm-up in qualifying and was more than three tenths adrift of Vettel, but he snuck opportunistically into second when the Mercedes drivers delayed each other at Turn 1.

The Finn's pace in the first stint was fine, but he was sacrificed to protect Vettel's lead from Rosberg. He probably would have finished fourth without the engine failure that ended his race, given Ferrari's poor strategy.

19 FELIPE MASSA
Williams-Mercedes FW38

Start: 6th
Finish: 5th
Strategy: 2 stops (super-soft/soft/medium)

Rating: 7

Massa hoped Williams would be battling Ferrari, but instead it was sucked back into a fight with Red Bull and Toro Rosso. He arguably should have outqualified Verstappen but was well clear of his own team-mate Bottas at least.

The race started well, but he got out-foxed by both Hamilton and Ricciardo in the first stint, then pitted too early. A poor Toro Rosso strategy and Raikkonen's retirement undid most of that damage at least.

77 VALTTERI BOTTAS
Williams-Mercedes FW38

Start: 16th
Finish: 8th
Strategy: 2 stops* (soft/medium)

Rating: 6

A reasonable result for Bottas after a difficult weekend. He loses marks for qualifying, where he couldn't get the super-soft tyre working, feeling he would have been 11th regardless of the format.

He recovered decently from a gearbox penalty and a bad start, passing both Saubers and Wehrlein's Manor in the first stint, though ultimately he paid for not protecting his first set of tyres as well as Grosjean's Haas.

3 DANIEL RICCIARDO
Red Bull-Renault RB12

Start: 8th
Finish: 4th
Strategy: 3 stops (super-soft/super-soft/soft/super-soft)

Rating: 8

Ricciardo felt the bottom of Q3 was about right for Red Bull, which lacks the engine power of Toro Rosso, Williams and Force India.

He dropped back at the start but earns marks for pulling moves on Hulkenberg and Massa in the first stint. Perhaps the home favourite could have finished second with a better tyre choice at the stoppage, but he finished as high up as the car merited.

26 DANIIL KVYAT
Red Bull-Renault RB12

Start: DNS (18th)
Finish: N/A
Strategy: N/A

Rating: 5

Kvyat tried to suggest the new qualifying format caught out his side of the Red Bull garage, but he has to take a lion's share of the blame for not managing at least one lap good enough to escape Q1 in a car easily fast enough for the top 10. That's why his mark is so low.

An electrical failure meant he didn't even start the race.

11 SERGIO PEREZ
Force India-Mercedes VJM09

Start: 9th
Finish: 13th
Strategy: 2 stops* (soft/medium)

Rating: 5

Force India finished 2015 superbly and Perez is enthusiastic about the new VJM09, but this race wasn't his best. He narrowly outqualified Hulkenberg, which is positive, but lost two places on the first lap, got stuck behind Alonso, was overtaken by Button (in an inferior car), and ran out of brakes towards the end.

The race strategy suited his skills, so this goes down as an opportunity squandered.

27 NICO HULKENBERG
Force India-Mercedes VJM09

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

Rating: 7

A pretty decent start to 2016 from Hulkenberg, who qualified behind Perez but made amends with a typically excellent start to jump his team-mate and Ricciardo on lap one.

Dropping back behind the Red Bull was irrelevant strategically, what mattered was pitting before Grosjean - and before the stoppage. A planned one-stop strategy therefore became two and left Hulkenberg stuck behind the Haas to the end.

20 KEVIN MAGNUSSEN
Renault RS16

Start: 14th
Finish: 12th
Strategy: 2 stops (super-soft/soft/medium)

Rating: 6

Magnussen's first race in F1 for 12 months was a mixed bag. He loses marks for being outqualified by rookie team-mate Jolyon Palmer, but was unlucky to pick up a puncture on lap one.

He got his lost lap back thanks to the stoppage and raced decently in the second half. Magnussen was lapping quicker than Palmer until catching Perez, and passed the brakeless Force India with three laps left.

30 JOLYON PALMER
Renault RS16

Start: 13th
Finish: 11th
Strategy: 2 stops (super-soft/soft/medium)

Rating: 8

One of the few to praise the new qualifying format, but Palmer was bound to feel buoyant after squeaking into Q2 at the death and outqualifying his highly-rated team-mate first time out. A fine effort.

He lacked Magnussen's pace on the medium tyre in the race, but fended off the faster Toro Rossos for longer than expected. This goes down as an accomplished debut.

33 MAX VERSTAPPEN
Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR11

Start: 5th
Finish: 10th
Strategy: 3 stops (super-soft/soft/soft/medium)

Rating: 6

Verstappen was superb in qualifying and started strongly, but his race unravelled after the restart. Poor strategy didn't help, but Verstappen also let frustration get the best of him.

Pitting before the team was ready wasn't smart and arguably cost him fifth given the way Ricciardo's race panned out after the Australian jumped him during those stops. Contact with Sainz was careless. He needs to stay calm in adversity. Speed is nothing without control.

55 CARLOS SAINZ JR
Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR11

Start: 7th
Finish: 9th
Strategy: 3 stops (super-soft/soft/soft/medium)

Rating: 7

Failing to match his Q2 performance in Q3 meant Sainz narrowly lost out to team-mate Verstappen and Massa's Williams. He wasn't quite as fast as Verstappen in the race either and struggled with front-wheel locking after the restart, but should have stayed out if he wanted a better result.

Verstappen's petulance allowed Sainz to gain track position unexpectedly, an advantage he rightly refused to concede.

9 MARCUS ERICSSON
Sauber-Ferrari C35

Start: 15th
Finish: retired
Strategy: (super-soft/soft/medium/retired)

Rating: 6

Ericsson was comfortably the best Sauber in qualifying, but endured a "mess" of a race.

He got stuck behind Wehrlein's super-soft shod Manor after a delay on the first lap and picked up a drive-though penalty after a rear tyre blanket got stuck during the stoppage.

An errant piece also became lodged in the wheel-rim and eventually upset the driveshaft, leading to an early bath.

12 FELIPE NASR
Sauber-Ferrari C35

Start: 17th
Finish: 15th
Strategy: 2 stops (super-soft/soft/medium)

Rating: 5

A frustrating weekend for Nasr, whose own chassis was not the one used in testing and therefore ran for the first time in practice here.

His struggles with brakes are nothing new, but this time it was their performance and balance rather than any overheating. He felt this explained the big gap to Ericsson in qualifying and it made his race pretty much a non-event too.

14 FERNANDO ALONSO
McLaren-Honda MP4-31

Start: 11th
Finish: retired
Strategy: (super-soft/soft/retired)

Rating: 7

A competitive showing from McLaren in Melbourne overall and Alonso looked in good form too, always a step ahead of team-mate Button. He was third fastest in Q1 and ultimately qualified within three tenths of Hulkenberg's Force India . This was proper midfield form, rather than straggling.

Alonso started the race extremely well, running inside the top 10, but then misjudged his attempt to pass Gutierrez at Turn 3 with dramatic consequences.

22 JENSON BUTTON
McLaren-Honda MP4-31

Start: 12th
Finish: 14th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft/soft/super-soft/medium)

Rating: 6

Button lapped close to Alonso all weekend, but was always fractionally behind in wet or dry. He was arguably on the better of McLaren's split strategies at the start of the race, but fitting super-softs at the stoppage proved a major error.

A better call then, plus better tyre management in the first stint, could have made him a lower points contender.

88 RIO HARYANTO
Manor-Mercedes MRT-05

Start: 22nd
Finish: retired
Strategy: (super-soft/soft/retired)

Rating: 7

Haryanto looked to be well adrift of Wehrlein through the build-up, and his pitlane collision with Grosjean's Haas in practice was clumsy, but he deserves enormous credit for being best Manor by 0.015s in qualifying.

A grid penalty for that earlier collision meant he started behind, and his race was nothing special until a driveline problem ended things early. But that qualifying performance is something to build on.

94 PASCAL WEHRLEIN
Manor-Mercedes MRT-05

Start: 21st
Finish: 16th
Strategy: 3 stops (super-soft/soft/soft/medium)

Rating: 7

The DTM champion looked rapid through practice, particularly on Saturday morning where he lapped within eight tenths of Nasr's Sauber, but he gets marked down for getting outqualified by team-mate Haryanto, who lacks Wehrlein's level of F1 test experience with Mercedes and Force India.

He started the race superbly though, running ahead of several faster cars for the first 10 laps, before the car regressed to its natural level.

8 ROMAIN GROSJEAN
Haas-Ferrari VF-16

Start: 19th
Finish: 6th
Strategy: 1 stop (soft/medium)

Rating: 8

Grosjean gets marked down for not extracting the most from the car in qualifying (usually his strength), but his race was faultless.

He managed the soft tyre better than anyone else early on, and took advantage of the red flag to capitalise on the perfect one-stop strategy - keeping several faster cars behind for the remainder to score a dream result on Haas's F1 debut.

21 ESTEBAN GUTIERREZ
Haas-Ferrari VF-16

Start: 20th
Finish: retired
Strategy: (soft/retired)

Rating: 7

Gutierrez was seriously quick on his F1 return, but just didn't get things together. He messed up Q1, but had his final flier counted he would have been fourth.

An apparent problem with engine settings cut him adrift of the pack for the first two laps of the race, but he recovered well until that frightening collision with Alonso (for which he was blameless) put him out.

* Note: While every driver 'stopped' under red flag conditions, those marked with a * did not change tyres