Bahrain Grand Prix driver ratings

44 Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes F1 W08

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

Rating: 8

Hamilton looked on for his third pole of the year, and seventh in succession, but was unusually outdone at the crucial moment in Q3, feeling a DRS glitch and mistake at the final corner cost him.

He shouldered blame for the shaky start and pit-entry blunder that helped hand victory to Vettel. Failing to win a race you comfortably had the pace to will always hurt.

77 Valtteri Bottas
Mercedes F1 W08

Start: 1st
Finish: 3rd
Strategy: 2 stops (super-soft/super-soft/soft)

Rating: 7

Bottas deserves enormous credit for beating Hamilton to claim his maiden pole position in F1 (the first for a Finnish driver since 2008!), but he ultimately endured a hugely disappointing race.

He could do nothing about the over-inflated tyres that ruined his first stint, but that doesn't explain his baffling lack of pace thereafter. He couldn't tame the oversteer and had to let Hamilton past - twice.

3 Daniel Ricciardo
Red Bull-Renault RB13

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

Rating: 8

Nobody in the team could explain Red Bull's sudden upturn in form here, but Ricciardo made the most of the situation - and an underwhelming lap from Kimi Raikkonen - to split the Ferraris in qualifying.

Red Bull showed such pace in the first stint Ricciardo thought he was going to win, but he fell away badly after the restart on cold tyres he just couldn't get warm. He at least recovered to the highest finish the car merited.

33 Max Verstappen
Red Bull-Renault RB13

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

Rating: 9

Verstappen got beaten by Ricciardo in qualifying, but he was quicker in Q2 and initially in Q3, so it would have been interesting to see the result had Massa not "ruined" his final run.

He made another barnstorming start to the race, jumping both Ricciardo and Raikkonen to run fourth - and harrying Hamilton. He was simply a passenger when the rear brakes failed shortly after his first pitstop.

5 Sebastian Vettel
Ferrari SF70H

Start: 3rd
Finish: 1st
Strategy: 2 stops (super-soft/super-soft/soft)

Rating: 9

The championship leader probably fancied his chances for pole after matching the Mercedes drivers to the tenth in Q2, but it's doubtful he could have threatened them in Q3 even with a cleaner lap.

Vettel more than threatened them in the race. His first-corner pass on Hamilton was brave and well-judged, and Bottas was easy meat thanks to Mercedes' problems. Once in front, Vettel is so hard to stop.

7 Kimi Raikkonen
Ferrari SF70H

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

Rating: 6

Raikkonen reckoned his Ferrari behaved better than ever here, but struggled with "a few small things" again as the track cooled in qualifying. He was well off Vettel's pace and got beaten by a Red Bull when he really shouldn't.

He paid dearly for a "shit start" to the race, and took ages to repass Massa's Williams (twice). He showed decent pace in the final stint at least, but it was too little, too late and he missed out on another Bahrain podium finish by two seconds.

11 Sergio Perez
Force India-Mercedes VJM10

Start: 18th
Finish: 7th
Strategy: 2 stops (super-soft/super-soft/soft)

Rating: 8

The Force India wasn't working well here, despite updates, but Perez was on a lap easily good enough for Q2 before yellow flags spoiled his day.

He passed Wehrlein, Alonso and Stroll on the first lap, picked off Palmer too; jumped Sainz, Ocon and Grosjean in the pits thanks to the safety car, nailed Hulkenberg after the restart, then chased Massa home. A good recovery.

31 Esteban Ocon
Force India-Mercedes VJM10

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

Rating: 7

Ocon went reasonably well on the first circuit on the calendar he's been to before and was likely going to edge Perez in Q1 before his team-mate's misfortune, but shouldn't have let Wehrlein's Sauber beat him in Q2.

A great first lap put Ocon into the points, but although the safety car hurt his race, he also lacked Perez's pace and didn't threaten Hulkenberg.

18 Lance Stroll
Williams-Mercedes FW40

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

Rating: 5

The rookie felt his feet were getting too hot in Friday practice, but in qualifying it was a lack of heat in the tyres that undid Stroll, who was quite a way off Massa's pace again.

He lost ground on the first lap and had to pit early again after flatspotting his tyres. He was minding his own business at Turn 1 when Sainz harpooned him out of the race.

19 Felipe Massa
Williams-Mercedes FW40

Start: 8th
Finish: 6th
Strategy: 2 stops (super-soft/soft/soft)

Rating: 9

He upset Max Verstappen with his driving in the dying moments of Q3 but did nothing wrong ultimately. He should probably have beaten Hulkenberg's Renault to seventh on the grid, but was solid enough.

Massa drove very well in the race, dispatching Hulkenberg immediately and mixing it with Raikkonen's Ferrari and Ricciardo's Red Bull for a time. He couldn't have done much better.

2 Stoffel Vandoorne
McLaren-Honda MCL32

Start: DNS (qualified 17th)
Finish: N/A
Strategy: N/A

Rating: 6

Vandoorne was close to Alonso initially in Q1, but lacked confidence on the brakes and was a chunk off his team-mate's ultimate pace. He is not getting it together in qualifying yet, but McLaren-Honda's poor reliability is also hampering his progress.

He suffered two MGU-H failures on Friday and a suspected third (related to a water leak) put him out before the race even started.

14 Fernando Alonso
McLaren-Honda MCL32

Start: 15th
Finish: Retired (classified 14th)
Strategy: (super-soft/soft/super-soft/retired)

Rating: 9

Another feisty performance in the face of great adversity from Alonso, who hauled his car into Q2 (with help from yellow flags for others) before suffering engine failure.

He hung tough in a race with Kvyat's Toro Rosso and Palmer's Renault - despite Honda's "impressive" power deficit - for as long as he could, before retiring with a suspected engine problem three laps from home.

26 Daniil Kvyat
Toro Rosso-Renault STR12

Start: 11th
Finish: 12th
Strategy: 2 stops (super-soft/soft/super-soft)

Rating: 5

Kvyat didn't quite get it together here. He was going to be behind Sainz in Q1, before Sainz's engine let go, and missed Q3 thanks to an error. He went off on lap one after a "misunderstanding" with Grosjean, which dropped him well back.

His recovery fight with Palmer and Alonso was fun, but ultimately Kvyat finished behind a Sauber in a car capable of points.

55 Carlos Sainz Jr
Toro Rosso-Renault STR12

Start: 16th
Finish: Retired
Strategy: (super-soft/super-soft/retired)

Rating: 7

Friday's vital second practice session was lost to a broken exhaust, so Sainz did well to put together a qualifying lap that was set to be easily good enough for Q2 until the engine failed.

He rose to 11th with a strong opening lap, but undid all that good work with a wildly optimistic lunge inside Stroll's Williams after exiting the pits, for which he was handed a grid penalty for the next race in Russia.

8 Romain Grosjean
Haas-Ferrari VF-17

Start: 9th
Finish: 8th
Strategy: 2 stops (super-soft/super-soft/soft)

Rating: 8

A decent weekend's work for Grosjean, who pranged his car in final practice but recovered well to make Q3 again, though ultimately he didn't hook up a great lap in the top-10 shootout and was quite far off Massa and Hulkenberg.

He lost out to Perez by pitting before the safety car, but managed to jump Hulkenberg later and score solid points.

20 Kevin Magnussen
Haas-Ferrari VF-17

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

Rating: 5

A disappointing grand prix for Magnussen, after the high of scoring his first points for Haas in China. He felt the yellow flags ruined his chances in qualifying, but in reality he wasn't lapping quick enough to make Q2 anyway.

He made up three places on the first lap of the race, but only lasted seven more before an electrical problem forced him out.

27 Nico Hulkenberg
Renault RS17

Start: 7th
Finish: 9th
Strategy: 2 stops (super-soft/soft/super-soft)

Rating: 8

Hulkenberg reckoned the qualifying lap that put him seventh - within two tenths of Verstappen's Red Bull - was "silky smooth" and as good as his Brazil 2010 pole effort. It was certainly right up there.

He lost a place to Massa at the start, but was steady thereafter. The Renault seems unkind on its tyres in race trim, and Hulkenberg lost out at the pitstops.

30 Jolyon Palmer
Renault RS17

Start: 10th
Finish: 13th
Strategy: 2 stops (super-soft/soft/super-soft)

Rating: 5

After struggling badly in practice, Palmer produced a strong effort to qualify inside the top 10 for the first time. Unfortunately, he switched his engine into the wrong mode and overdrove trying to compensate in Q3.

He got shuffled back early in the race, and picked up front wing damage while fighting Kvyat. Ultimately, a disappointing race.

9 Marcus Ericsson
Sauber-Ferrari C36

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

Rating: 5

Ericsson was faster than his returning team-mate on Friday, but admitted to underperforming in qualifying, where he ultimately failed to get within half a second of Wehrlein.

He was the only driver to start the race on the soft tyre, so the safety car timing was unfortunate for his strategy, but Ericsson was clinging on against Palmer when the Sauber's gearbox failed.

94 Pascal Wehrlein
Sauber-Ferrari C36

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

Rating: 9

A great effort from Wehrlein, who copped a lot of criticism for skipping two races to regain fitness following that back-breaking Race of Champions shunt. He starred in Bahrain last year and was superb again to put Sauber in Q2 and outqualify Ocon's Force India.

The first lap wasn't stellar, but he executed a one-stop strategy expertly to beat two faster cars fair and square.