United States GP driver ratings

44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes F1 W08

Start: 1st

Finish: 1st

Strategy: 1 stop (ultra-soft/soft)

Rating: 9

This was another excellent performance from Hamilton, who was again on a different level to team-mate Bottas and had to pass Vettel on track to win a race for only the second time this season.

Only failing to improve on his second Q3 run after being caught out by a gust of wind costs him a perfect score on an otherwise perfect weekend.

77 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes F1 W08

Start: 3rd

Finish: 5th

Strategy: 2 stops (ultra-soft/soft/ultra-soft)

Rating: 7

It's still not coming easily for Bottas, who struggled in the slower corners and admitted to particular problems with modulating the brakes. His qualifying performance was so-so, but while his race result was poor after having to abort a planned one-stopper, his pace in the first sector in particular was good.

Not great, but a little better than it looked, especially considering some floor damage was detected.

3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault RB13

Start: 4th

Finish: DNF

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

Rating: 8

While Ricciardo wasn't quite as quick as Verstappen overall, with the caveat that he didn't have the upgraded Renault engine, unlike his team-mate he did nail it when it mattered on his second Q3 run to earn fourth ahead of Raikkonen.

He was his usual aggressive self when challenging Bottas early on and opted for an early stop before an engine-related problem put him out.

33 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Renault RB13

Start: 16th

Finish: 4th

Strategy: 2 stops (super-soft/soft/super-soft)

Rating: 9

In the race, Verstappen was at his flamboyant best, surging from 16th on the grid after a hefty grid penalty to get among the frontrunners early on.

Fast and incisive, the fact the penalty for exceeding track limits was inevitable doesn't count against him in the ratings, but what he described as "two reasonable mistakes in qualifying" does. Even a spectacular race can't make up entirely for that.

5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari SF70H

Start: 2nd

Finish: 2nd

Strategy: 2 stops (ultra-soft/soft/super-soft)

Rating: 8

An off on Friday during a troubled FP2 set him back, but Vettel pulled a good qualifying lap out of the bag at the final attempt.

The race was a mixed bag, with a great start and an opportunistic pass on Bottas when recovering from his second stop, but he did ask too much of the tyres early on, didn't defend well against Hamilton and had a few scruffy moments.

7 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari SF70H

Start: 5th

Finish: 3rd

Strategy: 1 stop (ultra-soft/super-soft)

Rating: 7

This was one of Raikkonen's better weekends of the season, albeit falling short of his best performance. Lacking some of Ferrari's upgrade package, including the modified diffuser and floor, it was no surprise he was slower than Vettel.

He underachieved on his final Q3 run and overdid the fuel use in the race while catching Bottas, but drove a tidy and brisk enough race to a good result.

11 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes VJM10

Start: 9th

Finish: 8th

Strategy: 1 stop (super-soft/ultra-soft)

Rating: 7

His qualifying was compromised by only having one set of tyres for Q3 while his team-mate had two, and despite a good race his impatience when behind Ocon and clearly a little quicker certainly compromised his race.

He was unable to keep Sainz behind, which Ocon did manage to do, but he did at least keep Massa at bay. Overall, good, but a few rough edges.

31 Esteban Ocon Force India-Mercedes VJM10

Start: 6th

Finish: 6th

Strategy: 1 stop (ultra-soft/soft)

Rating: 9

Emphatically best-of-the rest in both qualifying and the race, the former despite struggling with illness, this was a classy performance from the ever-improving Frenchman.

A control unit scare on the grid didn't put him off his stride, and unlike team-mate Perez he was formidable in keeping Sainz's Renault at bay to take what you could consider a 'class victory' given the chasm between the top six and the rest.

18 Lance Stroll Williams-Mercedes FW40

Start: 15th

Finish: 11th

Strategy: 2 stops (super-soft/soft/ultra-soft)

Rating: 6

He wasn't at Massa's level even though his qualifying performance looked far worse than it was thanks to an MGU-K problem costing him around eight-tenths on the back straight and eliminating him in Q1.

Not helped by a penalty for impeding Grosjean in qualifying, Stroll stuck to his task in the race and was close to the points, which was a decent result on a testing weekend.

19 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes FW40

Start: 10th

Finish: 9th

Strategy: 1 stop (super-soft/ultra-soft)

Rating: 7

Massa probably should have made Q3 given his theoretical ideal lap would have put him into the top 10. The 'reverse' strategy, starting on the super-softs and finishing on the ultra-softs made the race hard work for him, and he ran out of time to get past Perez, who he'd been ahead of early on, but that was more caused by circumstances than driver.

2 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren-Honda MCL32

Start: 20th

Finish: 12th

Strategy: 1 stop (super-soft/ultra-soft)

Rating: 7

Vandoorne took a V6 upgrade before qualifying, although that five-place grid penalty became far worse when an MGU-H problem necessitated more pre-race changes and relegated him to the back.

He battled back well and wasn't too far off the points, but never looked quite as comfortable as Alonso was in yanking the best from the package. That said, the gap did seem to close a little as the weekend progressed.

14 Fernando Alonso McLaren-Honda MCL32

Start: 8th

Finish: DNF

Strategy: (ultra-soft/soft/retired)

Rating: 9

Alonso was operating at his usual high standard during the weekend, which is more than can be said for his car's MGU-H, which developed a problem and forced him out of the race when he was on course for a decent points finish.

His commitment on track was obvious, and he was set to finish seventh, which might have become sixth had he passed Ocon.

26 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Renault STR12

Start: 11th

Finish: 10th

Strategy: 1 stop (super-soft/soft)

Rating: 8

With his F1 future at stake, Kvyat showed commendable fortitude under immense pressure to deliver what he suggested was his best weekend of the year.

With the caveat that Sainz's departure deprived Toro Rosso of a yardstick, Kvyat appeared to do everything that could be asked with a decent qualifying lap and then a strong race despite a battery problem forcing a switch to a more conservative engine mode.

39 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso-Renault STR12

Start: 19th

Finish: 13th

Strategy: 2 stops (ultra-soft/super-soft/super-soft)

Rating: 8

Any judgement of Hartley's performance has to be framed in the context that he had never driven the car before the weekend and last raced a single-seater in April 2012. Given the steep learning curve, he performed admirably.

He felt he could have delivered a little more pace in qualifying and was a little conservative on the tyres in the race, but deserves more chances to apply what he has learned.

8 Romain Grosjean Haas-Ferrari VF-17

Start: 12th

Finish: 14th

Strategy: 1 stop (ultra-soft/soft)

Rating: 6

The unpredictability of the Haas throughout the weekend makes it difficult to judge either Haas driver, although Grosjean was the only one to be caught out by the struggles to switch the tyres on with serious consequences after binning it in FP3.

He qualified superbly, but had a mundane race in which he again struggled for pace - this time complaining of unusual degradation on the front-left tyre.

20 Kevin Magnussen Haas-Ferrari VF-17

Start: 17th

Finish: 16th

Strategy: 2 stops (super-soft/soft/ultra-soft)

Rating: 6

Magnussen at least managed to keep the lairy Haas on the track throughout practice, unlike his team-mate, but after a kerb strike led to floor damage at the start of Q1 he was condemned to the back of the grid.

He had little chance of making an impact in the race despite driving well and was perhaps fortunate to get away with the first-lap contact with Wehrlein.

27 Nico Hulkenberg Renault RS17

Start: 18th

Finish: DNF

Strategy: DNF (soft/retired)

Rating: 7

With a 15-place grid penalty, thanks to taking the latest Renault engine, Hulkenberg was always facing an uphill battle.

Given that his race lasted only a few laps, there's very little meaningful data to go on other than to say that he sailed through Q1 with only one run, compared to his team-mate's two. The weekend was a write-off through no fault of his own.

55 Carlos Sainz Jr Renault RS17

Start: 7th

Finish: 7th

Strategy: 1 stop (ultra-soft/soft)

Rating: 9

If you are being hyper-critical, he really should have made it through Q1 with only one run and therefore had two fresh sets of tyres for Q3, and it's possible he could have beaten Ocon.

But when you consider this was Sainz's first weekend in an unfamiliar car, albeit with the same power unit he was used to at Toro Rosso, you can't hold that against him too much.

9 Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari C36

Start: 13th

Finish: 15th

Strategy: 1 stop (super-soft/soft)

Rating: 8

The Swede comfortably had the measure of his team-mate throughout the weekend, outqualifying Wehrlein by just over three-tenths. He then delivered a decent race performance, as despite quickly falling behind out-of-position starters Verstappen, Stroll and Vandoorne, then being jumped by Hartley, he was losing out to quicker cars.

The clash with Magnussen was needless, though, and was a blot on an otherwise very decent weekend.

94 Pascal Wehrlein Sauber-Ferrari C36

Start: 14th

Finish: DNF

Strategy: (soft/retired)

Rating: 6

This was a trying weekend for Wehrlein, as while he was unfortunate to have his race effectively ended by a clout to the left-rear from Magnussen on the first lap, he seemed to struggle to get the most out of the car.

Sitting out the first practice session to let Charles Leclerc have some mileage won't have helped, but overall this was an unspectacular weekend.