Spanish Grand Prix driver ratings

44 Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes F1 W08

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

Rating: 9

Hamilton reckoned Ferrari and Mercedes remained within a tenth in Spain, cancelling each other out with upgrades, which led to an "intense" qualifying battle.

He got away with an underwhelming final Q3 run thanks to Vettel's error, and although he botched the start from pole, Hamilton recovered to victory thanks to a Bottas roadblock, sharp Mercedes strategy, and relentlessly fast driving.

77 Valtteri Bottas
Mercedes F1 W08

Start: 3rd
Finish: Retired
Strategy: (soft/medium/retired)

Rating: 7

Bottas was discombobulated by the loss of his new engine before final practice. He then couldn't tame oversteer in qualifying and made mistakes on each of his Q3 laps.

He started well, but braked too early for Turn 1 and inadvertently pushed Raikkonen into Verstappen. He survived the collision, but had no pace, so played a dutiful team game until the engine let go.

3 Daniel Ricciardo
Red Bull-Renault RB13

Start: 6th
Finish: 3rd
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/medium/soft)

Rating: 6

A pretty underwhelming weekend from Ricciardo, who trailed Verstappen in every session, and this year couldn't produce a Q3 special to get himself back in front - as he did in 2016 - struggling through Turn 13 and the chicane and ending up nearly half-a-second down on his team-mate.

First-corner shenanigans and Bottas's engine woes then left Ricciardo with just a Sunday drive home in the race for his first podium of 2017.

33 Max Verstappen
Red Bull-Renault RB13

Start: 5th
Finish: Retired
Strategy: (soft/retired)

Rating: 8

Verstappen felt the updated RB13 was the best he's driven all season and he put it to good use to crush team-mate Ricciardo in qualifying and lap within three tenths of Raikkonen's Ferrari.

That excellent performance earns him high marks. Sadly, Verstappen's race ended after one corner. He blamed Bottas for causing the collision, but three-wide through Turn 1 was never going to work.

5 Sebastian Vettel
Ferrari SF70H

Start: 2nd
Finish: 2nd
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/soft/medium)

Rating: 9

Vettel has the bit between his teeth this year, but he loses marks for gifting pole position to chief rival Hamilton.

He made up for that with a strong start, but was gradually undone as Mercedes threw everything it had at beating him. The passing move on Bottas was brilliant; defence against Hamilton was hard; but ultimately resisting a DRS move on the slower tyre was impossible.

7 Kimi Raikkonen
Ferrari SF70H

Start: 4th
Finish: Retired
Strategy: (soft/retired)

Rating: 7

Raikkonen was honest enough to admit his own messy driving cost him again in qualifying, when Mercedes looked there for the taking, so he loses marks for that scruffy effort.

He was blameless in the Turn 1 collision that ended his race, but put a smile back on the face of a very unhappy young Ferrari fan caught on camera sobbing over Raikkonen's exit and then invited into the paddock to meet his hero.

11 Sergio Perez
Force India-Mercedes VJM10

Start: 8th
Finish: 4th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/soft/medium)

Rating: 9

Perez was set to be fractionally slower than Ocon in qualifying, after sacrificing the early part of the lap to nail the end. However his team-mate didn't quite deliver when it counted, whereas Perez is now the midfield's most reliable operator.

He benefited from rivals' misfortunes after a poor start to finish a season's best fourth, but race pace compared to Ocon was impressive.

31 Esteban Ocon
Force India-Mercedes VJM10

Start: 10th
Finish: 5th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/soft/medium)

Rating: 8

Force India felt Ocon would have beaten Alonso to seventh in qualifying, but for failing to engage DRS at the correct moment in Q3 - which cost him at least two tenths and two places.

He drove another tidy race, but loses another mark for trailing Perez by 0.175s per lap on average. Still it was overall another impressive effort given his lack of experience.

18 Lance Stroll
Williams-Mercedes FW40

Start: 18th
Finish: 16th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/soft/medium)

Rating: 4

Stroll's struggles continued in Spain, where he looked to be lacking confidence. But he was still happy to lap within three tenths of Massa in Q1, amid Williams's battle for grip in hot conditions.

He wasn't happy with his race, though, and with good reason. Having been more than 50s up on the delayed Massa after lap two, he finished more than 11.5s down despite making one fewer pitstops.

19 Felipe Massa
Williams-Mercedes FW40

Start: 9th
Finish: 13th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft/soft/soft/medium)

Rating: 6

Massa looked inexplicably in danger of dropping out in Q1 until he twigged the need to drive like a grandma on his out-laps, which saved the rear tyres from overheating.

He threw away time in Q3, but recovered with a great start before a touch with Alonso exiting Turn 2 punctured a tyre. He was on a fruitless chase for nothing after that.

2 Stoffel Vandoorne
McLaren-Honda MCL32

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

Rating: 4

Vandoorne's underwhelming start to a difficult season continued at Barcelona, where despite his first clean Friday of the year he got dumped out in Q1 again.

The gap to Alonso was large and it seems Vandoorne is struggling to adapt his technique to this new breed of F1 car. A needless collision then ended his race. Vandoorne needs to raise his game.

14 Fernando Alonso
McLaren-Honda MCL32

Start: 7th
Finish: 12th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft/soft/medium/soft)

Rating: 8

Alonso absolutely maximised the heavily-updated MCL32 to qualify best of the midfielders, for which he probably deserves 11 out of 10, but his home race unravelled thanks to that first-lap touch with Massa.

He got stuck behind strategic gamblers Wehrlein and Kvyat, got overtaken by Ericsson's Sauber, and finished well outside the points even after the late dice roll of a third stop for new softs. A disappointing race after Saturday's heroics.

26 Daniil Kvyat
Toro Rosso-Renault STR12

Start: 19th
Finish: 9th
Strategy: 2 stops (medium/soft/soft)

Rating: 7

Kvyat was embarrassed to qualify the updated Toro Rosso last (prior to Vandoorne's penalty), given it was potentially capable of being in the top 10, and said his car was "driving on its own".

The team reckoned Kvyat's only problem on this occasion was Kvyat... He salvaged a decent score in these ratings by having a strong race - executing an alternative strategy and passing both Haas drivers.

55 Carlos Sainz Jr
Toro Rosso-Renault STR12

Start: 12th
Finish: 7th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/soft/medium)

Rating: 7

Sainz felt he got absolutely everything he could out of the STR12 in qualifying, but Toro Rosso didn't agree, considering there was nothing wrong with the car and Sainz was top-10 fast until the final runs in Q2.

He battled with the Haas drivers in the race and eventually cleared both, but couldn't clear Wehrlein's Sauber until a time penalty intervened.

8 Romain Grosjean
Haas-Ferrari VF-17

Start: 14th
Finish: 10th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/soft/medium)

Rating: 6

Grosjean complained about inconsistency in his Haas after qualifying below par, but also paid a price for overdriving again at the crucial moment in Q2.

He started the race well, but was delayed by the Massa/Alonso incident and got locked into a duel with Sainz. He matched team-mate Magnussen's pace, but Haas couldn't work the medium tyre and got also outfoxed by Wehrlein and Kvyat strategically.

20 Kevin Magnussen
Haas-Ferrari VF-17

Start: 11th
Finish: 14th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft/soft/medium/soft)

Rating: 7

Magnussen endured a messy Friday, but pulled things together in time for qualifying. He drove with discipline and was quicker than Grosjean, though he narrowly missed Q3.

Was on for a decent points finish in the race, until he tried to come back down the inside of Kvyat at Turn 4 and suffered a puncture after slight contact.

27 Nico Hulkenberg
Renault RS17

Start: 13th
Finish: 6th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/soft/medium)

Rating: 7

Qualifying wasn't great and Renault was at a loss to explain why, though Hulkenberg's out-laps were faster than Massa's, so perhaps he missed a tyre preparation trick given how gentler out-laps transformed Massa's fortunes.

Whatever, Hulkenberg drove a decent race, gaining six places on lap one thanks to a storming start and chaos ahead, and staying ahead of Wehrlein's Sauber during the VSC pitstop phase. Race pace is still lacking, though.

30 Jolyon Palmer
Renault RS17

Start: 17th
Finish: 15th
Strategy: 3 stops (medium/soft/soft/soft)

Rating: 4

Another disappointing weekend for Palmer, who complained of understeer in qualifying, where he took yet another early bath after lapping three tenths off Hulkenberg in Q1.

The race was no better. Palmer tried an alternative strategy but admitted to struggling to extract pace from the car and was overtaken by Vandoorne's McLaren-Honda. At least he beat Stroll to avoid wooden spoon status.

9 Marcus Ericsson
Sauber-Ferrari C36

Start: 16th
Finish: 11th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/soft/medium)

Rating: 7

Ericsson pushed his team-mate Wehrlein very hard in qualifying and was only 0.005s away from beating him into Q2.

He got delayed a bit by the mess at the first two corners but kept it together, showed reasonable pace compared to Wehrlein, and even overtook Alonso. Making a second stop just before the VSC period cut him adrift, but he was never in points contention.

94 Pascal Wehrlein
Sauber-Ferrari C36

Start: 15th
Finish: 8th
Strategy: 1 stop (soft/medium)

Rating: 10

Outqualifying a Renault, McLaren, Williams and Toro Rosso was unexpected, but not as unexpected as Wehrlein's outstanding race.

A perfectly-timed pitstop under VSC was the key strategically, but Wehrlein's pace was also properly respectable, so he deserves great credit for scoring points in F1's slowest car. Sauber took blame for the pitlane-entry penalty that cost him a place to Sainz, so he can't be faulted really.