We rate the drivers after the Malaysian GP

Red Bull-Renault RB9
Start: 1st
Finish: 1st
Strategy: 4 stops (inter/medium/hard/hard/medium)
Rating: 4

His excellent qualifying performance, too early first pitstop and pass for the lead must all be taken into count, but his race will be remembered for his defiance of team orders.

Maybe a true great always goes for victory, but you can make a more compelling case that he let down a team of hundreds of people for his own ends. Vettel is one of the all-time greats, but this wasn't his finest hour, hence the very low score.

Red Bull-Renault RB9
Start: 5th
Finish: 2nd
Strategy: 4 stops (inter/hard/medium/hard/hard)
Rating: 8

Webber blamed his disappointing qualifying on a team timing error, but getting caught up with Lewis Hamilton at the final corner was what really cost him.

A good first race lap put him into contention and by running two laps longer than Vettel on intermediates, he made the perfect tyre call. In the end, he did what he needed to do, just keeping Vettel at bay after the final pitstops. Would have been a worthy winner, despite not keeping Vettel at bay.

Ferrari F138
Start: 3rd
Finish: DNF
Strategy: Retired lap 2 (inter)
Rating: 4

While Alonso was outqualified by team-mate Felipe Massa for the fourth consecutive race, some of the deficit was down to timing on the ever-improving track. After a good start, he was caught out by Vettel's perfectly legitimate slow apex speed at Turn 2 and clobbered the back of the Red Bull.

It was his mistake, but less in his control was the decision to stay out with a wing that was visibly badly deranged in the hope of making it to the slick window.

Ferrari F138
Start: 2nd
Finish: 5th
Strategy: 4 stops (inter/medium/hard/medium/medium)
Rating: 8

For the first time since Bahrain 2010, his first race as Alonso's team-mate, Massa qualified on the front row. This was thanks to an excellent lap in tricky conditions.

Unfortunately, a disappointing getaway, combined with chronic graining on his intermediates cost him around 17 seconds to the race lead by the time the field had settled after the first stops. That he was 25s down at the finish after a decent recovery shows that otherwise he could have been fighting for third.

McLaren-Mercedes MP4-28
Start: 7th
Finish: Retired/classified 17th
Strategy: Retired (inter/medium/medium/hard)
Rating: 9

It was impossible not to feel some sympathy for Jenson Button. Buoyed by progress made with the car, he qualified and raced well only to head home pointless after pitlane problems.

Had he gone on to finish fifth and within sight of the battling Mercedes, which is probably how the race would have panned out, it would have represented an excellent weekend's work. As it is, the quality of Button's drive in difficult circumstances shouldn't be overlooked.

McLaren-Mercedes MP4-28
Start: 9th
Finish: 9th
Strategy: 4 stops (inter/medium/medium/hard/hard)
Rating: 7

Qualifying was disappointing, with a one-second deficit to Button, but the race went a little better. Sergio Perez had a crack at running a three-stop strategy that could have resulted in him being in the mix for a better finish, although he was some way away from being able to pull it off.

Even so, he bagged not just his first points for McLaren, but his first since signing for the team last year. Squandered some time with needless scrapping.

Lotus-Renault E21
Start: 10th
Finish: 7th
Strategy: 3 stops (inter/medium/medium/hard)
Rating: 6

While Kimi Raikkonen was able to make one stop fewer than the leading cars, that's where the similarities to his victorious Australian Grand Prix weekend finished. The die was cast by the car's struggles in intermediate conditions, with the Finn unable to do better than seventh in qualifying, even before a three-place penalty for impeding Nico Rosberg.

He lost a heap of time in the damp early in the race, which meant that he spent far too many laps in traffic to capitalise strategically.

Lotus-Renault E21
Start: 11th
Finish: 6th
Strategy 3 stops (inter/medium/medium/hard)
Rating: 7

The Franco-Swiss driver was downbeat after Friday's running, when the same mystery car problem that had ruined his Australian GP struck again.

However, he was back in business with the Lotus working well on Saturday, only for a combination of bad timing and his failure to get more out of the car on used mediums to leave him outside of Q3. His race performance was stronger when not on intermediates, and he did a very good job to beat Raikkonen to sixth.

Mercedes F1 W04
Start: 6th
Finish: 4th
Strategy 4 stops (inter/medium/medium/hard/medium)
Rating: 8

The pattern in qualifying from Australia, with Rosberg faster than Hamilton in Q1 and Q2 before ending up two places behind him in the top-10 shootout was repeated. Not that the one-second gap in damp Q3 was representative of anything other than the fact that his team-mate did a better job of stringing a lap together before his intermediates were too far gone.

Rosberg's underlying race performance was very similar to Hamilton's, but he was frustrated at not being allowed to pass in the final stint.

Mercedes F1 W04
Start: 4th
Finish: 3rd
Strategy 4 stops (inter/medium/medium/hard/medium)
Rating: 8

The encouraging start to Hamilton's Mercedes career continued with him taking only the team's seventh podium since the works effort was revived at the start of 2010.

While he did have to rely on team orders to finish ahead of Rosberg, that was partly down to him going aggressive earlier in the race when it looked possible to mix it with the Red Bulls. The Briton was also quietly effective in qualifying, emerging as the best placed of those who didn't stop for fresh inters.

Sauber-Ferrari C32
Start: 12th
Finish: 8th
Strategy 4 stops (inter/medium/medium/hard/hard)
Rating: 9

When evaluating any driver's weekend, a pretty good indication of how well they have done is whether there is evidence to suggest they could have qualified or finished higher.

In Hulkenberg's case, there was nothing he could have done about the weather misjudgement that led to him ending up 12th after setting a time on used rubber. In the race, he excelled in the low-grip conditions and ended up only five seconds shy of the quicker Lotus of Raikkonen.

Sauber-Ferrari C32
Start: 14th
Finish: 12th
Strategy: 4 stops (inters/hard/medium/medium/hard)
Rating: 6

The Mexican looked very average in comparison to his team-mate, but considering how well Hulkenberg is performing, it would be unfair to use that to damn the rookie. Certainly he should have set a better Q2 time, even though he was on used slicks and was caught out by the arrival of the rain.

He had a relatively quiet race, but his strategy was based on being able to make only three stops, something he fell five laps short of achieving.

Force India-Mercedes VJM06
Start: 15th
Finish: DNF
Strategy: Retired (inter/medium/hard)
Rating: 6

This has to go down as one of those weekends when everything went wrong. The team was well and truly caught out by conditions in Q2, leading to the Scot having a couple of offs trying to put in a lap on slicks while the rain was falling.

The race started promisingly, but di Resta lost time queuing behind team-mate Adrian Sutil at the first stop. He set some quick times while trying to recover before eventually having to retire thanks to the team's problem with its cars' wheelnuts.

Force India-Mercedes VJM06
Start: 8th
Finish: DNF
Strategy: Retired (inter/medium/hard)
Rating: 7

The German's comeback continues to go very much to plan, with a first appearance of the season in Q3. He was a little disappointed not to be higher up the grid, but had a solid start to the race in conditions in which he usually excels, suggesting that there is still a little more to come from him as he reacclimatises to F1.

Like his team-mate, his race was ruined by Force India's captive wheelnut disaster, but when on track he was competitive.

Williams-Renault FW35
Start: 16th
Finish: DNF
Strategy: Retired (inter/medium/medium/medium)
Rating: 5

Pastor Maldonado continues to be frustrated by the shortcomings of the Williams, although his determination to drive around these is surely causing more problems than it is solving.

An off on an installation lap (he was one of six drivers to visit the gravel) was embarrassing but excusable. Less forgivable was running off the track and damaging his front wing after he had dragged the car into a promising position. His eventual retirement was down to a KERS issue rather than driver error, however.

Williams-Renault FW35
Start: 18th
Finish: 11th
Strategy: 3 stops (inter/medium/medium/medium)
Rating: 7

Considering that Valtteri Bottas was last on the first lap after running wide while scrapping with a Caterham, coupled with the fact that he was driving a car still some way off where it's expected to be, to finish just a second and a half off the points was impressive.

Given how close he was to Jean-Eric Vergne at the finish, having been passed by him on lap 46, a point may have been possible. However, the Toro Rosso is a much stronger car, so that was probably an unfair ask.

Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR8
Start: 17th
Finish: 10th
Strategy: 3 stops (inter/hard/hard/medium)
Rating: 8

On paper, his qualifying performance was disappointing, although his exit in Q1 was partly down to hitting traffic at an inopportune moment. The Frenchman made up for it in the race, however.

He lost 25 seconds after his STR crew released him into the path of Charles Pic's Caterham at the first stop, but did an excellent job to fight back and score a point, passing Bottas late on to take 10th. After throwing away a top 10 in Australia, this was an accomplished drive.

Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR8
Start: 13th
Finish: Retired/classified 18th
Strategy: Retired (inter/medium/medium/hard)
Rating: 6

Thirteenth in qualifying was a decent return, although there was a feeling of frustration that the opportunity was there to do even better given the conditions.

Ricciardo's opening stint looked to have laid the foundations for a push for points, but his pace in the dry wasn't as strong, perhaps because of floor damage inflicted when he spun into the gravel on an installation lap. This was patched up, but deteriorated during the race. He eventually retired with an exhaust problem.

Caterham-Renault CT03
Start: 20th
Finish: 14th
Strategy: 4 stops (inter/medium/hard/medium/medium)
Rating: 8

Qualifying was so-so, although the Frenchman complained about understeer in Q1, which perhaps exaggerated the gap to Jules Bianchi's Marussia.

When Toro Rosso released Vergne's car into his path at the first stop, with predictable nose-crunching consequences, it cost Pic 20-odd seconds, yet his pace was good enough to get back ahead of both team-mate Giedo van der Garde and Max Chilton. In the end, Pic was little more than half a minute behind Bianchi, which reflects well on him given the time lost.

Caterham-Renault CT03
Start: 22nd
Finish: 15th
Strategy 4 stops (inter/hard/hard/hard/medium)
Rating: 7

The raw pace gap between team-mates van der Garde and Pic was not as big as the six tenths in qualifying suggests, with the Dutchman's real deficit around the three-tenths mark. Considering this was only his second grand prix weekend, that's a respectable place to be.

His team-mate's pitlane disaster gifted him the initiative in the intra-Caterham team battle, but he was unable to hold onto it. More important was his defeat of Chilton in a tight battle, which was a good effort.

Marussia-Cosworth MR-02
Start: 19th
Finish: 13th
Strategy 4 stops (inter/medium/hard/hard/medium)
Rating: 9

The Frenchman's performance in Australia was impressive, but the evidence of Malaysia proves that there was still more to come.

The Caterhams were a greater threat, but Bianchi always had them covered. Bianchi's pace was outstanding, but the key to his weekend was delivering when it mattered, specifically with an excellent qualifying lap and by turning consistently strong laps in the race. His tyre management also impressed. He didn't put a foot wrong, and he believes there's more to come.

Marussia-Cosworth MR-02
Start: 21st
Finish: 16th
Strategy: 4 stops (inter/medium/hard/medium/hard)
Rating: 5

Even when you take into account the car problems that compromised practice for Max Chilton, it was a disappointing weekend. The qualifying gap was distorted by Chilton running wide at Turn 6 after overcommitting into T5, meaning that the four tenths between the two cars on their first runs was more representative.

A poor start compromised Chilton's race, but his pace wasn't good enough often enough to beat the two Caterhams. Even subtracting misfortune and fellow rookie Bianchi's far greater experience, this one is best filed away as character building.