Bahrain Grand Prix driver ratings

6 NICO ROSBERG
Mercedes F1 W06

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

Rating: 7

Rosberg studied video of his 2014 loss here in an effort to avenge defeat and get his title challenge up and running, but it's his qualifying performances that need work.

He looked decent in practice, but "mismanaged" his qualifying strategy and ended up third on the grid.

Three wins in four races for Hamilton in 2015 so far © XPB

Forged back ahead of both Ferraris after slipping to fourth on lap one, but lost second to Raikkonen when his brake-by-wire system failed on the penultimate lap.

44 LEWIS HAMILTON
Mercedes F1 W06

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

Rating: 10

No matter the mud thrown at him, nothing seems capable of derailing Hamilton's locomotive at present. He crushed the field again in qualifying, taking pole by over four tenths of a second.

From there the race was his to control and he did so with his customary aplomb. Brake-by-wire failure on the final lap was a scare, but fortunately he had already done enough to keep Raikkonen out of reach.

3 DANIEL RICCIARDO
Red Bull-Renault RB11

Start: 7th
Finish: 6th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/soft/medium)

Rating: 8

Ricciardo admitted Red Bull has been struggling to set up the RB11 correctly so far, but his fortunes improved here.

He arguably should have outqualified Massa's Williams, but he overdid things at Turn 6 on his second run in Q3 and ended up a narrow seventh.

Ricciardo only just made it across the line as his engine expired © XPB

Drove a quiet but fine race to sixth - probably the maximum possible. Another engine failure as he crossed the line was his unwelcome reward...

26 DANIIL KVYAT
Red Bull-Renault RB11

Start: 17th
Finish: 9th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/soft/medium)

Rating: 7

The Russian's disappointing start to life at Red Bull continued in Bahrain. He looked a step behind Ricciardo on Friday and lost most of Free Practice 3 by beaching his car in a gravel trap that he was unaware of at Turn 4.

Problems with his energy store contributed to the first Q1 exit of his F1 career, but he recovered well with a charge up to ninth on Sunday.

Kvyat desperately needs a clean weekend to see how he really stacks up.

19 FELIPE MASSA
Williams-Mercedes FW37

Start: Pit (qualified 6th)
Finish: 10th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/soft/medium)

Rating: 7

Williams thinks Massa is driving at his best level since his narrow title defeat to Lewis Hamilton in 2008, but he wasn't quite at that level here.

He wasn't happy with the balance of his FW37 on Friday, but he recovered and should have qualified just behind Bottas but for a crucial error at the last corner on his final Q3 lap.

Bottas managed to resist Vettel to the flag © LAT

He did well to score a point with a damaged car after a sensor problem forced a pitlane start and set up a brush with Maldonado.

77 VALTTERI BOTTAS
Williams-Mercedes FW37

Start: 5th
Finish: 4th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/soft/medium)

Rating: 9

The team made significant progress in understanding how to work the soft tyre since China, which made the Williams a much more competitive proposition in Bahrain. Bottas was also finally free of back pain, which helped.

He was mighty in the final sector and he came within 0.154s of outqualifying a Ferrari. Then he managed to finish ahead of one in the race thanks to Vettel's woes. A fine weekend's work.

5 SEBASTIAN VETTEL
Ferrari SF15-T

Start: 2nd
Finish: 5th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft/soft/medium/medium)

Rating: 6

Vettel expected Ferrari to be closer to Mercedes than in China and was proved correct.

Rosberg's underperformance in qualifying allowed Vettel to split the Mercedes - the 0.4s gap to Hamilton about the most you can expect from a Ferrari right now - but his race was disappointing.

Raikkonen finally returned to the podium © LAT

He couldn't find his rhythm and broke his front wing by going off battling Rosberg, which meant an extra stop and defeat by Bottas's Williams.

7 KIMI RAIKKONEN
Ferrari SF15-T

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

Rating: 9

Raikkonen was pleased to execute his first "clean" race of 2015 in China and followed that up with a brilliant effort in Bahrain.

He underperformed again in qualifying, admitting he "could have pushed more", but did just enough to keep ahead of Bottas's Williams.

From his best grid slot since the 2013 German GP, Raikkonen scored his first podium since returning to Ferrari. A tyre-management masterclass that almost netted victory.

14 FERNANDO ALONSO
McLaren-Honda MP4-30

Start: 14th
Finish: 11th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/medium/soft)

Rating: 9

Alonso's record at the Sakhir circuit is superb and he looked in excellent form through a trouble-free build-up.

He made it through to Q2 for the first time this year by going an excellent ninth fastest in Q1, and but for a slightly down-on-power engine he would have made Q3.

Button was only able to do 32 laps all weekend © LAT

He then came within four seconds of scoring McLaren-Honda's first point of the season in the race. Couldn't have done much more really.

22 JENSON BUTTON
McLaren-Honda MP4-30

Start: N/A
Finish: N/A
Strategy: N/A

Rating: N/A

Button suffered the brunt of McLaren-Honda's reliability problems in Bahrain, as separate electrical problems (with a fuse, a sensor and a wiring loom) caused his car to shut down three times in four sessions, including at the start of qualifying.

More electrical problems were discovered in the garage before the race, meaning the team couldn't even get Button to the grid...

11 SERGIO PEREZ
Force India-Mercedes VJM08

Start: 11th
Finish: 8th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/soft/medium)

Rating: 9

Perez was involved in a collision with Vettel's Ferrari in practice, but the stewards took no action.

He did well to be faster than Hulkenberg in Q1 but just missed out on making the top-10 shootout, as Force India enjoyed its most competitive Saturday so far this season.

No podium this year, but another fine Bahrain drive from the tyre-nursing Perez © XPB

The Mexican drove a superb race, passing incisively when necessary and managing his tyres effectively to score the best result possible.

27 NICO HULKENBERG
Force India-Mercedes VJM08

Start: 8th
Finish: 13th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft/soft/medium/medium)

Rating: 7

Hulkenberg reckons Force India is simply in survival mode until the B-spec VJM08 arrives, but the current car looked markedly more competitive at this circuit than at any other point so far this season.

He qualified a heroic eighth with a mighty performance on Saturday, but fell away in the race as he struggled for grip, and to make his tyres last. The team suspects the car was not quite right.

33 MAX VERSTAPPEN
Toro Rosso-Renault STR10

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

Rating: 5

The Formula 3 graduate didn't cope nearly as well with the understeer required to get the Toro Rosso working at this circuit and ended up a disappointing 15th in qualifying, almost half a second adrift of his team-mate in Q2.

Toro Rosso had its worst weekend of the 2015 season so far © LAT

Verstappen couldn't make any progress in the race, as suspected electrical problems forced him to run with reduced power from a very early stage. He had to stop completely after 34 laps for fear of losing the engine altogether.

55 CARLOS SAINZ JR
Toro Rosso-Renault STR10

Start: 9th
Finish: Retired
Strategy: (soft/medium/soft/retired)

Rating: 6

Both Toro Rosso drivers struggled here, but Sainz adapted better to the understeer dialled into the STR10 for qualifying.

His confidence grew through the sessions and he did superbly to make the top 10. He should still have been one place higher on the grid but for a small mistake at Turn 11.

Sainz was bafflingly uncompetitive in the race until a loose wheel forced him to pull off shortly after his second stop.

8 ROMAIN GROSJEAN
Lotus-Mercedes E23

Start: 10th
Finish: 7th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/soft/medium)

Rating: 7

Grosjean missed free practice 1 so Jolyon Palmer could drive, and he wasn't entirely happy with the balance of his car thereafter.

He was an excellent seventh fastest in Q2, but disappointingly lost time in Q3 and wound up slowest of the top-10 shootout runners.

Maldonado needed his mechanics' help after a pit mistake © LAT

He made up for that with an excellent start to the race. Struggled a bit with the rear tyres, but another seventh was about the best result possible.

13 PASTOR MALDONADO
Lotus-Mercedes E23

Start: 16th
Finish: Retired
Strategy: 3 stops (medium/soft/soft/soft)

Rating: 4

Although his Chinese GP unravelled late-on, Maldonado drove impressively at Shanghai and looked strong again here initially.

A problem with the car's ERS deployment ruined qualifying and from 16th on the grid he had a poor race, running off-track twice on lap one and making contact with Massa's Williams shortly after.

He accidentally switched off his engine at his final stop, compounding his own misery.

28 WILL STEVENS
Marussia-Ferrari MR-04

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

Rating: 7

Stevens was again significantly faster than his team-mate throughout the weekend and qualified over a second clear.

He fell behind Merhi at the start but managed to forge back ahead before the end of lap six.

Stevens was Manor's leading light again © XPB

From there he was in a race of his own at the back, eventually finishing a lonely and twice-lapped 16th. It's hard to judge where he's at given Merhi's half-a-second weight disadvantage.

98 ROBERTO MERHI
Marussia-Ferrari MR-04

Start: 19th
Finish: 17th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/soft/medium)

Rating: 4

His driving was spectacular but slow on Friday and he continues to suffer a puzzlingly large deficit to his team-mate, which the team calculates is partly down to a weight disadvantage and partly down to him.

Merhi admitted to messing up in qualifying, which exaggerated the difference on Saturday, but he got ahead of Stevens at the start of the race. That was as good as it got, though.

9 MARCUS ERICSSON
Sauber-Ferrari C34

Start: 13th
Finish: 14th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft/soft/soft/medium

Rating: 7

Ericsson wasn't quite at his team-mate's level through Friday and Saturday, and he made a mistake on his fastest qualifying lap so was lucky not to get eclipsed by Alonso's McLaren.

A combative and eventful race, but no points, for Sauber © XPB

He started the race strongly, though, and was running comfortably in the top 10 until a problem changing the left-front wheel at his second stop. Without that delay he would probably have finished in the points.

12 FELIPE NASR
Sauber-Ferrari C34

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

Rating: 6

Nasr reckons cooler conditions suit Sauber so he expected the C34 to get stronger as the Bahrain GP progressed.

The car certainly wasn't as competitive in qualifying trim as at recent races and 12th on the grid was probably about the maximum given Force India's improved form and the struggles of others.

He lost ground at Turn 1 after the start and couldn't recover, also losing power temporarily during the race.