Chinese Grand Prix driver ratings

6 Nico Rosberg
Mercedes F1 W06

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

Rating: 7

Admitted to being disappointed by his first two races of this season, but Rosberg was stronger here. He came within "the blink of an eye" of denying Hamilton pole for the first time this year, and those four hundredths of a second proved crucial.

Rosberg felt Hamilton was backing him into the Ferraris in the race © LAT

He was annoyed by his team-mate's 'go-slow' approach to the race, but that's the price you pay for being second best.

44 Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes F1 W06

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

Rating: 10

The world champion reckoned the significance of Ferrari's shock win in Malaysia was blown out of proportion, but Mercedes' strategists clearly begged to differ.

Hamilton finally enjoyed a clean run through practice and topped every session (though he almost lost pole to Rosberg by not improving on his second Q3 run). He drove only as fast as necessary on Sunday, to protect his tyres and record his 35th grand prix victory.

3 Daniel Ricciardo
Red Bull-Renault RB11

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

Rating: 6

Red Bull reverted to Brembo brakes after the disaster of Malaysia and, combined with improved driveability, the RB11 looked a much more competitive proposition in China.

Struggling Kvyat made team-mate Ricciardo work hard to get past him © LAT

Ricciardo qualified as high as could reasonably be expected, given Renault's power deficit, but a poor start cost him dearly. Arguably he should have been fighting with Williams, but he ended up battling Ericsson's Sauber...

26 Daniil Kvyat
Red Bull-Renault RB11

Start: 12th
Finish: Retired
Strategy: (medium/retired)

Rating: 6

Kvyat was set back by rear-brake failure on Friday, followed by an engine problem that hampered him in qualifying. He started his race on the medium tyre, which made the early stages challenging.

Got involved in contact on the first lap and remained in the fight long enough to make his team-mate's life unnecessarily difficult, before his second engine of the season went bang on lap 16.

19 Felipe Massa
Williams-Mercedes FW37

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

Rating: 9

Massa crunched the FW37's new front wing after the rear one stalled under braking for Turn 14 on Friday, but turned his weekend around with an excellent performance on Saturday, qualifying fourth with what he reckoned was a "perfect" lap.

Massa had Bottas covered when it counted at Shanghai last weekend © LAT

He lost ground at the first corner to Raikkonen and Bottas in the race, but repassed his team-mate out of Turn 6 and edged away thereafter. In a Williams, he couldn't have finished any higher.

77 Valtteri Bottas
Williams-Mercedes FW37

Start: 5th
Finish: 6th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/medium/medium)

Rating: 7

Overheated his tyres in qualifying and ended up almost two tenths adrift of Massa. At the start he made a valiant effort to pass both his team-mate and Raikkonen's Ferrari round the outside of Turn 1, but eventually got shuffled back at Turn 6 and struggled with the tyres again thereafter.

Bottas was just not quite on Massa's level this weekend, as Williams again trailed Ferrari.

5 Sebastian Vettel
Ferrari SF15-T

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

Rating: 9

Another strong performance from the four-time world champion, who again got the best possible result for Ferrari. Vettel was a bit disjointed on Friday, but he pulled it together on Saturday and qualified a comfortable third.

Raikkonen's hopes of beating Vettel were ended by the safety car © LAT

He put Rosberg under pressure early in the race, but struggled slightly on the medium tyre later on, and was falling into Raikkonen's clutches when the safety car saved the day.

7 Kimi Raikkonen
Ferrari SF15-T

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

Rating: 8

Lacked Vettel's pace on Saturday, but should have been fast enough for row two at least. Delivered another poor lap in qualifying though, which put him behind the Williams drivers. He recovered with an excellent start and a feisty first lap in the race.

Raikkonen displayed the excellent tyre management skills that rattled Merc on Friday and was closing Vettel down late in the race when the safety car spoiled his party.

14 Fernando Alonso
McLaren-Honda MP4-30

Start: 18th
Finish: 12th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/medium/soft)

Rating: 7

Alonso has a strong record at this track and came to China bolstered by reliability modifications to the engine after his Malaysia retirement. He suffered more problems in free practice, but was in better shape come qualifying and the race.

Alonso won the McLaren battle with his first finish of the season © LAT

He qualified fractionally slower than Button (0.004s), but got ahead at the start and stayed out of trouble on an alternative strategy to record his first finish for McLaren-Honda.

22 Jenson Button
McLaren-Honda MP4-30

Start: 17th
Finish: 14th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/soft/medium)

Rating: 7

Looked stronger than his team-mate through free practice, but also had fewer reliability problems. Button had the benefit of a newer specification of floor for qualifying, but this was counteracted by the effect on chassis balance.

He was a bit weaker than Alonso early in the race, but came alive for a brilliant late battle with Maldonado. Was penalised for clattering into the Lotus unnecessarily at Turn 1, so dropped an extra place after the flag.

11 Sergio Perez
Force India-Mercedes VJM08

Start: 15th
Finish: 11th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft/soft/soft/medium)

Rating: 8

The Mexican admitted ahead of the weekend to frustration at Force India trailing its rivals while waiting for its B-spec car to be finished, but he will need to keep that in check for a while yet.

Both drove well, but points are hard to come by for Force India © LAT

Looked weaker than his team-mate through practice, but came good in qualifying to beat Hulkenberg into Q2. He executed an alternative three-stop strategy to rise to 11th and remain ahead of the McLarens. His best race yet in 2015.

27 Nico Hulkenberg
Force India-Mercedes VJM08

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

Rating: 7

Hulkenberg looked in good shape through free practice, but dropped out in Q1 with what the team described as a "poor" third sector on his fastest lap. Even if he'd strung it all together, he would have qualified fractionally slower than his team-mate.

He made up for all that in the race with an excellent first lap, but only lasted eight more before a suspected engine problem stopped him in his tracks.

33 Max Verstappen
Toro Rosso-Renault STR10

Start: 13th
Finish: 17th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/medium/medium)

Rating: 9

The teenager looked super-strong over longer runs on the medium tyre through free practice, but wasn't entirely comfortable with his car here. He should probably have qualified one place higher but for a mistake under braking on his best lap.

Verstappen was robbed of well-deserved points by late-race failure © LAT

Verstappen drove an excellent race, pulling off some demon late-braking moves on the Saubers to run eighth before his engine let go cruelly three laps from home.

55 Carlos Sainz Jr
Toro Rosso-Renault STR10

Start: 14th
Finish: 13th
Strategy: 2 stops (medium/soft/soft)

Rating: 6

Sainz was not as impressive here as in his first two grands prix. He qualified 0.145s adrift of his team-mate and endured a difficult race. He felt there was "no grip" starting on the medium and spun at Turn 2 while battling Perez on the second lap.

He was more comfortable on the soft, but lost 43.5s resetting his car when it lost drive. Even without these dramas he likely wouldn't have scored points.

8 Romain Grosjean
Lotus-Mercedes E23

Start: 8th
Finish: 7th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/medium/medium)

Rating: 8

Stymied by an engine-sensor failure and incorrect cooling configuration in Malaysia, Grosjean reckoned points would be on the cards with a clean weekend and was proved correct. He was superb again on Saturday in qualifying eighth.

Maldonado's race was going well until things fell apart for him © XPB

In the race he was helped by Ricciardo's poor start, and was slower than team-mate Maldonado in the middle stint, but all-in-all a fine performance - his first points finish since last May's Monaco GP.

13 Pastor Maldonado
Lotus-Mercedes E23

Start: 11th
Finish: Retired
Strategy: (soft/medium/medium/retired)

Rating: 7

Maldonado wasn't happy with his E23's balance on Friday, but missed out on making Q3 by just 0.007s on Saturday. He drove an excellent first two-thirds of the race, and was potentially on course to beat his team-mate, but ruined it by outbraking himself at the pit entry.

He spun trying to recover the lost time and then got punted off during an exciting battle with Button's McLaren. He retired with a rear brake problem shortly after.

28 Will Stevens
Marussia-Ferrari MR-04

Start: 19th
Finish: 15th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/medium/soft)

Rating: 7

Stevens lost a chunk of practice to an electrical problem on Friday, but the car ran cleanly on Saturday, which allowed him to qualify for the first time this season. The team felt he "clicked" with the circuit and showed pace comparable with Jules Bianchi in last year's Marussia.

Stevens finally got to join the F1 field for a race on Sunday © XPB

His first race start of the year didn't go well, but he repassed team-mate Merhi early on and never looked back.

98 Roberto Merhi
Marussia-Ferrari MR-04

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

Rating: 5

Merhi was desperate for his team-mate to make the start, in order to avoid a "boring" grand prix driving around on his own.

Reckoned the 0.751s deficit to Stevens in qualifying was down to missing FP3 due to a fuel pump control problem and carrying extra weight compared to his team-mate. He was more competitive in the race, but still trailed Stevens by a quarter of a second per lap.

9 Marcus Ericsson
Sauber-Ferrari C34

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

Rating: 7

Keen to follow up on his "breakthrough" weekend in Malaysia, Ericsson had a good Chinese GP but was shaded by team-mate Nasr.

Ericsson made life difficult for the recovering Ricciardo © LAT

He made Q3 for the second successive race, qualifying less than a tenth behind his team-mate, but struggled to get his front tyres working in the race. He slipped back as Sunday wore on and was outmanoeuvred in a late battle with Ricciardo's Red Bull.

12 Felipe Nasr
Sauber-Ferrari C34

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

Rating: 7

Putting the disaster of Malaysia behind him, Nasr made use of a new front wing and revised rear suspension to show more of the quality we saw during his star debut in Melbourne.

He converted his best qualifying position yet into another points finish. Was outfumbled by Verstappen's Toro Rosso in wheel-to-wheel combat, but couldn't really have finished any higher.