Austrian Grand Prix driver ratings

44 Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes F1 W08

Start: 8th
Finish: 4th
Strategy: 1 stop (super-soft/ultra-soft)

Rating: 9

Hamilton was very fast with an ageing engine on Friday, but admitted to being off-colour in Q3. Brake failure on Saturday morning and running super-softs in Q2 to facilitate an alternative strategy in the face of a grid penalty didn't help, but Hamilton came alive as the race wore on.

Though it was a strong recovery drive, he couldn't quite break Ricciardo's defences.

77 Valtteri Bottas
Mercedes F1 W08

Start: 1st
Finish: 1st
Strategy: 1 stop (ultra-soft/super-soft)

Rating: 10

Bottas's Q2 lap was stunning and helped him narrowly see off a stern challenge from Vettel's Ferrari to bag pole in Q3.

After that 'inhumanly' fast start, Bottas looked utterly in control on the ultra-soft tyre. The second part of the race was much tougher, but Bottas showed great composure, hanging on with blistering rear tyres as Vettel homed in.

3 Daniel Ricciardo
Red Bull-Renault RB13

Start: 4th
Finish: 3rd
Strategy: 1 stop (ultra-soft/super-soft)

Rating: 10

Ricciardo has become over-sensitive to rear instability recently, so he revelled in a Red Bull with more downforce and rear grip, and pipped Verstappen in qualifying.

His race was stunning. Ricciardo forced his way past Raikkonen on lap one, kept pace impressively with the leaders through the first stint, and expertly repelled Hamilton's late charge. Austria was easily his best drive of 2017.

33 Max Verstappen
Red Bull-Renault RB13

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

Rating: 7

Verstappen is generally driving brilliantly this year, but he was scruffy in qualifying here and spun off after trying too hard. He gets 7/10 for that performance as his Sunday was too short to be judged.

For the third race in a row his car let him down - this time the clutch went awry, causing a slow start, plunging him into the Turn 1 melee, then out of the race.

5 Sebastian Vettel
Ferrari SF70H

Start: 2nd
Finish: 2nd
Strategy: 1 stop (ultra-soft/super-soft)

Rating: 9

Vettel's Ferrari looked properly hooked up here and he wasn't far short of stealing pole from Bottas after making impressive progress between Q2 and Q3.

He didn't start the race brilliantly and struggled a bit on the ultra-soft tyre, but came storming back into contention on the super-soft and put Bottas under serious pressure at the end. A much better performance than Baku.

7 Kimi Raikkonen
Ferrari SF70H

Start: 3rd
Finish: 5th
Strategy: 1 stop (ultra-soft/super-soft)

Rating: 6

Raikkonen struggled to get properly dialled in on Friday. Qualifying was better, but he was nowhere close to Vettel's level.

He got outmuscled by Ricciardo on lap one of the race, lost out to Hamilton in the pits, and disappointingly fell away in traffic at the end. Raikkonen wasn't helped by a persistent minor engine problem, but this 'laggard's' drive won't have appeased Ferrari's president.

11 Sergio Perez
Force India-Mercedes VJM10

Start: 7th
Finish: 7th
Strategy: 1 stop (ultra-soft/super-soft)

Rating: 8

Perez felt his qualifying performance was one of the best of his career, recovering from set-up troubles and lost track time in practice to make Q3 and narrowly get the best of team-mate Ocon.

He hoped for a closer fight with Grosjean in the race. It was basically stalemate until they got separated by the leaders lapping Perez at the end.

31 Esteban Ocon
Force India-Mercedes VJM10

Start: 9th
Finish: 8th
Strategy: 1 stop (ultra-soft/super-soft)

Rating: 7

Ocon's strong qualifying form is forcing Perez to dig deep. This time there was only 0.069s in it, but Ocon probably should have beaten Perez given his cleaner run through practice.

He matched Perez through stint one, but lost time by pitting seven laps later. Ocon's hopes of a fightback were undone by defending against Massa over the final 20 laps.

18 Lance Stroll
Williams-Mercedes FW40

Start: 18th
Finish: 10th
Strategy: 1 stop (super-soft/ultra-soft)

Rating: 7

In spite of Williams's woeful lack of grip in qualifying, Stroll kept up well with team-mate Massa and was less than a tenth off in Q1.

The rookie dodged the lap-one chaos nicely to run right with Massa early on, but fell away steadily as first Magnussen then Palmer applied pressure. Stroll fended off the Renault to make it three consecutive points finishes.

19 Felipe Massa
Williams-Mercedes FW40

Start: 17th
Finish: 9th
Strategy: 1 stop (soft/ultra-soft)

Rating: 7

Massa felt Williams missed a trick with tyre temperatures in qualifying, but even amid its worst showing of the season he should have made Q2 with a cleaner lap.

He rose through the mayhem of lap one to miraculously run inside the points all race. Though Massa used fresher and softer tyres to pressure Ocon at the end, the Force India didn't crack.

2 Stoffel Vandoorne
McLaren-Honda MCL32

Start: 13th
Finish: 12th
Strategy: 1 stop (ultra-soft/super-soft)

Rating: 7

Vandoorne traded blows with Alonso through practice and qualified closer than ever - though Vandoorne was slightly flattered by a 'spec-3' engine advantage.

He ran wide at Turn 1 avoiding Alonso's accident and got eaten alive by Massa, Stroll, Magnussen and Palmer on the run to Turn 3. Vandoorne kept up well thereafter, until a needless penalty for ignoring blue flags, but his pace was respectable.

14 Fernando Alonso
McLaren-Honda MCL32

Start: 12th
Finish: Retired
Strategy: (ultra-soft/retired)

Rating: 7

Alonso looked a Q3 contender after a strong first run in Q2 and he accepted blame for dropping the time in sector two that would have got him through, so he loses marks for being below his own extraordinarily high standards.

He was a totally blameless "passenger" as Kvyat took him out at Turn 1, so gets marked solely on a slightly sub-par qualifying effort.

26 Daniil Kvyat
Toro Rosso-Renault STR12

Start: 14th
Finish: 16th
Strategy: 2 stops (ultra-soft/soft/ultra-soft)

Rating: 4

Kvyat was the faster Toro Rosso driver in practice, so was mystified when his car became unstable in qualifying, robbing him of rhythm and confidence. The team could find no obvious reason.

He made a good start but a bad error at Turn 1 wrecked Alonso's race and his own. The Toro Rosso finished last by a distance with damage after a drivethrough penalty.

55 Carlos Sainz Jr
Toro Rosso-Renault STR12

Start: 10th
Finish: Retired
Strategy: (ultra-soft/super-soft/retired)

Rating: 8

With the floor of his car working again, Sainz was back on form in Austria. One rival team boss reckoned the lap that got him into Q2 was Alonso-like in being beyond the car's natural capability. He earns all his marks for that.

The race was a 40-lap non-event thanks to a severe engine misfire that eventually forced Sainz out.

8 Romain Grosjean
Haas-Ferrari VF-17

Start: 6th
Finish: 6th
Strategy: 1 stop (ultra-soft/super-soft)

Rating: 9

When the Haas works well, Grosjean is a force. Extra downforce and grip in Austria allowed him to drive naturally and this was his best qualifying performance since Australia. Lapping within two tenths of Ricciardo in Q2 was a highlight.

He drove a strong race too, getting ahead of Raikkonen briefly before regressing to the car's natural level as 'best of the rest'.

20 Kevin Magnussen
Haas-Ferrari VF-17

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

Rating: 8

Magnussen was faster than Grosjean throughout practice, so it would have been interesting to see who came out on top had Magnussen's rear suspension not collapsed in Q1.

He lost ground avoiding the mess at Turn 1, but repassed Palmer and was hassling Stroll for 10th when a freak hydraulic failure, caused by a washer bursting a pipe, ruined his race.

27 Nico Hulkenberg
Renault RS17

Start: 11th
Finish: 13th
Strategy: 1 stop (super-soft/soft)

Rating: 5

Hulkenberg produced a "sweet lap" to almost displace Sainz from Q3, but the race was a disaster.

The Renault was "almost last" by the first corner after Hulkenberg triggered anti-stall at the start and he decided to pit early having struggled on the super-soft tyre. He lost "huge amounts of time" being lapped thereafter and finished not far clear of Wehrlein's Sauber. Very disappointing.

30 Jolyon Palmer
Renault RS17

Start: 16th
Finish: 11th
Strategy: 1 stop (soft/ultra-soft)

Rating: 7

Having lapped close to Hulkenberg in final practice, Palmer disappointingly exited the scene in Q1 again in qualifying.

Although he missed out on points, Palmer called this race a "breakthrough". He successfully adapted his driving style, outpaced Hulkenberg and was only half a second away from beating Stroll to the final point. Now he needs to qualify better and string it all together.

9 Marcus Ericsson
Sauber-Ferrari C36

Start: 19th
Finish: 15th
Strategy: 1 stop (ultra-soft/super-soft)

Rating: 7

After struggling to keep his Sauber on the track on Friday, Ericsson got much closer to the pace in qualifying, coming within 0.25s of beating Stroll's Williams.

He struggled on the ultra-soft in the race and got passed by Wehrlein after a mistake at Turn 1, but began to home back in later, until he fell away badly amid a succession of blue flags.

94 Pascal Wehrlein
Sauber-Ferrari C36

Start: Pits
Finish: 14th
Strategy: 1 stop (super-soft/ultra-soft)

Rating: 8

Wehrlein had the measure of Ericsson on Friday, but engine problems plagued his car on Saturday and he qualified slowest of all on a track he starred at with Manor last year.

An overnight turbo change sent him to the pitlane for the start, but Wehrlein recovered past Ericsson and pretty much matched Hulkenberg's pace. A strong race in tough circumstances.