Hungarian GP driver ratings

44 Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes F1 W08

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

Rating: 8

Hamilton is usually peerless in Hungary, but Mercedes wasn't at its best and he struggled for consistency. He paid ultimately for two uncharacteristic errors at the fast Turn 4 left-hander in qualifying, which compromised the early part of his race.

He was quicker than Bottas, and put Ferrari under pressure (to no avail) with help from team orders, then sportingly sacrificed three points for the privilege on the final lap.

77 Valtteri Bottas
Mercedes F1 W08

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

Rating: 8

A very solid weekend given the downforce limitations of the car, but Bottas was not quite as fast as Hamilton ultimately, even though he qualified ahead, and that manifested itself in the race when Bottas failed to put Ferrari under any sustained pressure.

That Mercedes refused to sacrifice Bottas for Hamilton nevertheless indicates how serious a contender Bottas has become.

3 Daniel Ricciardo
Red Bull-Renault RB13

Start: 6th
Finish: Retired
Strategy: (super-soft/retired)

Rating: 8

Ricciardo impressively topped both Friday practice sessions in the updated Red Bull, and felt he might have outqualified Hamilton without losing practice three to a hydraulic problem.

Ricciardo passed the Mercedes out of Turn 1 on the first lap and jumped Verstappen too, but his race was ended by an "amateur" punt from team-mate Verstappen at Turn 2. He deserved better considering how well he was driving.

33 Max Verstappen
Red Bull-Renault RB13

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

Rating: 9

Verstappen struggled in practice, but turned it around for qualifying and looked to be in the hunt for pole until Mercedes and Ferrari turned their engines up in Q3.

His late chase of Bottas was brilliant; understeering into Ricciardo at Turn 2 was needless. Verstappen loses a mark for that, once again courting disaster with an attacking style that leaves little margin for error.

5 Sebastian Vettel
Ferrari SF70H

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

Rating: 8

Vettel struggled for rhythm on Friday on a track he likes, but moved firmly into the ascendant in final practice and both his Q3 laps were good enough for pole. He looked completely in control of the race early on, until bent steering unsettled him.

Staying off the kerbs to protect the mystery problem, he drove tortoise-like thereafter, only raising his game when Raikkonen came under threat from Hamilton late-on.

7 Kimi Raikkonen
Ferrari SF70H

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

Rating: 8

Raikkonen delivered as expected on a strong weekend for Ferrari by sticking his car on the front row, but was matching Vettel on his final Q3 lap until he "threw it away" with a sideways moment at the chicane, so he loses marks for that.

He half-heartedly challenged Vettel at Turn 1, but was cast into a defensive role after that.

11 Sergio Perez
Force India-Mercedes VJM10

Start: 13th
Finish: 8th
Strategy: 1 stop (super-soft/soft)

Rating: 7

Perez struggled for front end grip here, scraped through Q1 and qualified behind Ocon for only the second time this season. He started strongly, but was fortunate to survive contact with his team-mate at Turn 1.

A slow pitstop made no difference really, as Perez wasn't fast or close enough to jump Alonso and Sainz. A good result, but he's driven better.

31 Esteban Ocon
Force India-Mercedes VJM10

Start: 11th
Finish: 9th
Strategy: 1 stop (super-soft/soft)

Rating: 7

Ocon coped better with Force India's understeer and was genuinely quicker than Perez here, feeling the two-tenth gap to Q3 was unbridgeable.

Beating one Toro Rosso was a good effort. He got muscled out by Perez at Turn 1, but jumped back ahead of Vandoorne thanks to an error in the pits from his rival. The final stint was stalemate with Perez.

18 Lance Stroll
Williams-Mercedes FW40

Start: 17th
Finish: 14th
Strategy: 1 stop (super-soft/soft)

Rating: 6

Stroll was impeded by Kvyat in qualifying, but neither he nor Williams felt there was much more to come from a car that simply doesn't work properly on slow circuits. Perhaps he might have squeaked into Q2 with a cleaner run.

He kept up reasonably well with the pack through the first stint, but overheated the tyres and fell away badly in the second.

40 Paul di Resta
Williams-Mercedes FW40

Start: 19th
Finish: Retired
Strategy: (super-soft/soft/retired)

Rating: 9

Di Resta qualified on the back row and didn't finish, but this was no Luca Badoer-style embarrassing comeback from the Williams substitute. He rightly earned plaudits for splitting the Saubers in qualifying - in a car he only drove for the first time in Q1.

The Mercedes DTM man understandably lost ground at the start making his first F1 getaway since 2013, and while being lapped, but showed very respectable pace in difficult circumstances.

2 Stoffel Vandoorne
McLaren-Honda MCL32

Start: 8th
Finish: 10th
Strategy: 1 stop (super-soft/soft)

Rating: 7

The extra work McLaren is doing to make Vandoorne feel more comfortable is paying off. He wasn't quicker than Alonso here, so not quite as impressive as Silverstone, but he is starting to extract his own potential more consistently.

He paid for getting stuck behind Ricciardo's hobbled Red Bull at Turn 3 on the opening lap and overshooting his marks at the pitstops, but finished right on Ocon's tail.

14 Fernando Alonso
McLaren-Honda MCL32

Start: 7th
Finish: 6th
Strategy: 1 stop (super-soft/soft)

Rating: 9

McLaren reckoned Alonso got all he could out of the MCL32 in qualifying, feeling the extra tenth that would have got him ahead of Hulkenberg was out of reach.

He lost out to Sainz on lap one and wasn't impressed with his countryman's aggressive defending, but eventually forced a way back past then pulled away with ease. Fastest lap was a neat flourish.

26 Daniil Kvyat
Toro Rosso-Renault STR12

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

Rating: 7

Kvyat usually goes well at the Hungaroring, a normally strong circuit for Toro Rosso. He wasn't quite at Sainz's level, but was right in the middle of a five-way fight for the final Q3 spot covered by just three tenths.

He needed a straightforward clean race after recent travails, and recovered from his grid penalty for impeding Stroll to finish just outside the points.

55 Carlos Sainz Jr
Toro Rosso-Renault STR12

Start: 9th
Finish: 7th
Strategy: 1 stop (super-soft/soft)

Rating: 9

Sainz felt the lap that got him into Q3 was one of his best, and it was yet another example of him extracting slightly more than expected from the car in qualifying. He drove a strong race to finish seventh too.

He was on the limit of aggression racing Alonso, and fell away in the second half, but largely excelled again.

8 Romain Grosjean
Haas-Ferrari VF-17

Start: 14th
Finish: Retired
Strategy: (super-soft/soft/retired)

Rating: 7

The Haas looked all over the place in Hungary and couldn't be tamed to fit Grosjean's attacking style. He scraped into Q2 but could do no more than that really.

He got bumped wide by Hulkenberg at Turn 1, which spoiled his race. He then pitted early with a slow puncture, but emerged without the left rear wheel properly attached, so that was that.

20 Kevin Magnussen
Haas-Ferrari VF-17

Start: 15th
Finish: 13th
Strategy: 1 stop (super-soft/soft)

Rating: 7

Haas endured what Gunther Steiner called its worst Friday in F1, including Antonio Giovinazzi shunting in the morning, so it was always going to be tough for Magnussen.

Having done fewer practice laps than anyone bar di Resta, to qualify only 0.01s off Grosjean was a strong effort. He drove Hulkenberg off the road during their feisty late battle, which cost Magnussen two places with the consequent penalty.

27 Nico Hulkenberg
Renault RS17

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

Rating: 8

Hulkenberg superbly qualified his Renault best-of-the-rest for the second race in succession, only for a gearbox penalty to drop him back.

He got away with smashing into Grosjean at Turn 1 then spent a frustrating race battling slower cars. He might have beaten Ocon but for an awful pitstop, which embroiled him in an ugly fight with Magnussen before he retired with damage.

30 Jolyon Palmer
Renault RS17

Start: 10th
Finish: 12th
Strategy: 1 stop (super-soft/soft)

Rating: 5

Palmer needed a strong weekend to get his season back on track, so damaging his car by going off in practice one than crashing in practice two couldn't have constituted a worse start really.

Saturday was cleaner, but Palmer was miles off Hulkenberg again in qualifying, and the race wasn't much better until things got bottled up towards the end. Time for a much-needed break.

9 Marcus Ericsson
Sauber-Ferrari C36

Start: 20th
Finish: 16th
Strategy: 2 stops (super-soft/soft/super-soft)

Rating: 6

Ericsson was the quicker Sauber driver on Friday and felt he would have been ahead of Wehrlein in qualifying too had he not had to back off because of Kvyat's off in Q1.

Ericsson locked up massively into Turn 1 and flatspotted his tyres, which defined his race. He soldiered on for 62 laps on his replacement tyres but couldn't quite make it without another late pitstop.

94 Pascal Wehrlein
Sauber-Ferrari C36

Start: 18th
Finish: 15th
Strategy: 2 stops (super-soft/soft/soft)

Rating: 6

Wehrlein recovered from a monster crash on Friday to squeak ahead of Ericsson in qualifying, but even with cooling updates fitted and the engine at full power the gap to Stroll's Williams proved too great.

A slow puncture forced Wehrlein into the pits much too early, but he recovered solidly enough. Sauber desperately needs a big step to join the midfield fight.