Japanese Grand Prix driver ratings

6 Nico Rosberg
Mercedes F1 W07

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

Rating: 10

Rosberg was superb all weekend at Suzuka, topping every session. He loves the track, and he found his groove quickly. He had a small wobble at the start of Q3, but maintained a tiny but decisive edge over Hamilton nonetheless.

On Sunday he aced the start and never looked back. At a pivotal moment in the title race, Rosberg delivered the performance of a champion.

44 Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes F1 W07

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

Rating: 9

There was a lot of noise surrounding Hamilton, but if his spat with the media betrayed mental fragility off the circuit, Mercedes could see no sign of it on track. It was ill-advised to chase a special set-up to beat Rosberg, when he should have relied on his talent instead.

He loses a mark for that hideous start, which proved crucial. While he recovered well, this was a vital race lost.

5 Sebastian Vettel
Ferrari SF16-H

Start: 6th
Finish: 4th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/hard/soft)

Rating: 9

A very strong race from Vettel, who bounced back well from the disappointment of crashing out in Malaysia with a well-judged first lap here.

Things were looking good for a podium, possibly even a shot at second, but efforts to out-do Red Bull strategically, coupled with some bad luck with backmarkers, undid his hopes. He ended up stuck behind Hamilton and frustrated.

7 Kimi Raikkonen
Ferrari SF16-H

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

Rating: 9

Raikkonen was pleasantly surprised how quick Ferrari was at Suzuka, and drove well in qualifying to be best of the rest behind Mercedes. A grid penalty for a gearbox change undid that good work.

Getting baulked by Vettel at Turn 1 dropped him behind Hulkenberg, but he fought back well to beat Ricciardo to fifth, and finish within 8.101 seconds of Vettel.

19 Felipe Massa
Williams-Mercedes FW38

Start: 12th
Finish: 9th
Strategy: 1 stop (medium/hard)

Rating: 7

There was very little to choose between the Williams drivers again, with Massa slower but on the same tenth as Bottas in qualifying.

That he rose from 14th at the end of lap one to finish ahead of Bottas and in the points was down to patience, good strategy, and a bit of bad luck for his team-mate. Still, this was a decent effort.

77 Valtteri Bottas
Williams-Mercedes FW38

Start: 11th
Finish: 10th
Strategy: 1 stop (medium/hard)

Rating: 7

Williams struggled at Suzuka this year, with Bottas suggesting the car was well balanced but just generally lacking grip. He was marginally faster than Massa, and should have finished ahead in the race, but got undone by an uncharacteristic slow Williams pitstop.

He will probably also feel a little disappointed to get mugged by Hulkenberg at the chicane, too, which prompted a "See ya later" message over the radio from the German.

3 Daniel Ricciardo
Red Bull-Renault RB12

Start: 4th
Finish: 6th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/hard/hard)

Rating: 6

Not a great race for the Malaysian GP winner. He was unhappy to qualify fractionally slower than Verstappen, blaming an old Renault engine that was "bleeding" on the straights.

Ricciardo was compromised off the start by Hamilton's slow getaway, which bottled him up behind Perez's Force India. He got ahead in the pits, but struggled in the second stint and got jumped by Raikkonen.

33 Max Verstappen
Red Bull-Renault RB12

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

Rating: 10

Another excellent performance from Red Bull's young prodigy. Verstappen out-qualified his team-mate for the second race in succession, and held on to second place for grim death, despite the threat from faster cars behind.

His hard late defence against Hamilton prompted a withdrawn protest from Mercedes, but Hamilton was OK with what happened, so let's give Verstappen the benefit of the doubt.

11 Sergio Perez
Force India-Mercedes VJM09

Start: 5th
Finish: 7th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/hard/medium)

Rating: 9

Perez made a brief cameo inside the top three in this race after the opening lap shenanigans, but the Force India eventually regressed to its natural level at the head of the midfield.

This was the archetypal quietly effective Perez performance. He was strong in qualifying again, and achieved realistically the best possible result in the race.

27 Nico Hulkenberg
Force India-Mercedes VJM09

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

Rating: 9

Hulkenberg was very impressive in this race. He started two rows back from his team-mate, but finished just 1.682s behind him after 53 laps.

He bravely passed Raikkonen's baulked Ferrari around the outside of Turn 1 at the start, and his later move around Bottas's Williams at the chicane was expertly judged. Hulkenberg made a hash of the chicane in qualifying, but was otherwise excellent.

20 Kevin Magnussen
Renault RS16

Start: 17th
Finish: 14th
Strategy: 1 stop (hard/medium)

Rating: 6

Ultimately a frustrating weekend for Magnussen, who trailed Palmer by more than two tenths when it mattered in qualifying and failed to escape Q1.

He felt starting the race on the harder tyre was a disadvantage, but he wasn't that quick on the medium either, and finished well behind his team-mate, and only just ahead of Ericsson's slower Sauber.

30 Jolyon Palmer
Renault RS16

Start: 16th
Finish: 12th
Strategy: 1 stop (medium/hard)

Rating: 9

This was a very strong weekend for Palmer. Qualifying was mysteriously difficult after both cars made the top 10 in final practice, but Palmer felt he would have qualified behind the Williams pair that locked out the sixth row without encountering yellow flags for Sainz's spin in Q2.

Palmer matched their pace for chunks of the race on the same strategy, which shows how far he and Renault have come.

26 Daniil Kvyat
Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR11

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

Rating: 9

Kvyat is starting to find a decent groove now. He is more comfortable in the team and feels the former self that once so impressed Red Bull is gradually returning. He narrowly out-qualified Sainz for the second race in a row, and felt he out-performed the car in the race.

It was definitely one of his better drives this year, in a tricky car.

55 Carlos Sainz Jr
Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR11

Start: 14th
Finish: 17th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/hard/soft)

Rating: 6

This was a tough grand prix for Sainz. He was nip-and-tuck with Kvyat in qualifying, despite an ECU problem in final practice and a spin at Spoon on his second Q2 run, but the race was difficult.

His first stint was fine, but he got bullied and stuck behind Alonso's McLaren. An outside pass of Gutierrez at Turn 6 was his only highlight.

9 Marcus Ericsson
Sauber-Ferrari C35

Start: 18th
Finish: 15th
Strategy: 1 stop (medium/hard)

Rating: 8

Ericsson had high hopes coming to Suzuka. Ultimately he delivered a decent display, but it was a tough road getting there. He felt Sepang masked the car's deficiencies and then struggled to find a decent set-up for qualifying.

The race was much better. He executed his strategy well, and felt he would have challenged Kvyat but for getting jumped by Magnussen in the pits.

12 Felipe Nasr
Sauber-Ferrari C35

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

Rating: 6

Another tough weekend for Nasr, who was pleased with his first qualifying run but upset to see his second compromised by traffic on the out-lap, which cost him crucial tyre temperature.

The race was disappointing too. His first set of tyres faded too quickly, and he also flat-spotted them before his pitstop, where he lost more time briefly engaged in anti-stall.

14 Fernando Alonso
McLaren-Honda MP4-31

Start: 15th
Finish: 16th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/hard/hard)

Rating: 8

Alonso admitted McLaren-Honda's woeful lack of pace on Honda's home circuit was a "nasty surprise". He dragged the car into Q2, but couldn't do much in the race.

He battled hard and successfully with Sainz's Toro Rosso, but got jumped by the one-stopping Renaults and Ericsson's Sauber and sounded frustrated on the radio. A huge disappointment after two consecutive points finishes.

22 Jenson Button
McLaren-Honda MP4-31

Start: 22nd
Finish: 18th
Strategy: 2 stops (hard/soft/soft)

Rating: 8

Button was all at sea in practice, but copying Alonso's set-up got him back in the game and although he was dumped out in Q1, Button lapped only 0.032s slower than his team-mate in qualifying.

He switched to a two-stop strategy after starting on the hard tyre, and finished roughly the same distance behind Alonso as he trailed after the first lap.

31 Esteban Ocon
Manor-Mercedes MRT-05

Start: 20th
Finish: 21st
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/hard/hard)

Rating: 9

This was a really impressive weekend from Ocon. He was two tenths clear of Wehrlein in qualifying, and felt he would have beaten at least one Sauber too without a mistake at Spoon.

That was the only blemish really. He got forced wide after a great start, but his pace was strong and he didn't finish far behind Nasr's Sauber or Gutierrez's Haas.

94 Pascal Wehrlein
Manor-Mercedes MRT-05

Start: 21st
Finish: 22nd
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/hard/hard)

Rating: 6

The DTM champion was second best of the Manors on a tough weekend. He felt issues with the gearbox and brakes disrupted his rhythm in final practice, and prevented him getting the most from the car in qualifying.

The car behaved well in the race, and Wehrlein's pace was generally solid, but he lost touch with Ocon with a really slow out-lap after his first stop.

8 Romain Grosjean
Haas-Ferrari VF-16

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

Rating: 8

Haas got its Singapore front wing working properly here, which allowed Grosjean to flourish. He matched Perez in qualifying, even with a DRS glitch.

The race was more difficult. Grosjean got too much clutch slip at the start and flatspotted his tyres avoiding Hulkenberg at Turn 1. He drove an impressively combative race, but unfortunately got stuck behind Palmer for too long to beat the Williams drivers to score points.

21 Esteban Gutierrez
Haas-Ferrari VF-16

Start: 10th
Finish: 20th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/hard/hard)

Rating: 5

A disappointing outcome. The Mexican was best of the rest behind Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull in Q2, but slipped to 10th in Q3 after running off track.

He tracked Grosjean in the first stint of the race, but got stuck behind Sainz and was angry when they collided at the chicane, damaging the Haas's front wing. His pace fell away badly after that.