EDD STRAW rates the field's performances in a German Grand Prix that featured some stunning moments of wheel-to-wheel racing, and a few that went awry
1 SEBASTIAN VETTEL
Red Bull-Renault RB10
Start: 6th
Finish: 4th
Strategy: 3 stops (supersoft/soft/supersoft/soft)
Rating: 8
Still just behind his team-mate on pace, but drove a good, combative race to emerge with what was probably as good a result as a Red Bull was going to get.
Still looks a little hesitant on turn-in and needs to get on top of the car, but at least making progress.
3 DANIEL RICCIARDO
Red Bull-Renault RB10
Start: 5th
Finish: 6th
Strategy: 3 stops (supersoft/soft/supersoft/soft)
Rating: 9
Again, was smoother and quicker than Vettel but even more impressive was the way he fought back after being forced to take evasive action to miss the inverted Massa at the start.
Drove stunningly in wheel-to-wheel combat with Alonso and nearly stole fifth from him at the line.
6 NICO ROSBERG
Mercedes F1 W05
Start: 1st
Finish: 1st
Strategy: 2 stops (supersoft/soft/soft)
Rating: 8
It was a good job he was unopposed by Hamilton during Q3, because pressing the DRS button a fraction too early on his second run cost him a chance to improve.
Even so, did a solid job to take pole and then didn't put a foot wrong in the race.
44 LEWIS HAMILTON
Mercedes F1 W05
Start: 20th
Finish: 3rd
Strategy: 3 stops (soft/soft/supersoft/supersoft)
Rating: 9
Can't be blamed for what happened in qualifying, and probably would have taken pole but for the brake failure.
Recovered superbly, but had he avoided that clash with Button, he would surely have finished second. Excellent, but not flawless.
7 KIMI RAIKKONEN
Ferrari F14 T
Start: 12th
Finish: 11th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft/supersoft/soft/supersoft)
Rating: 7
The result on paper is poor, but actually Raikkonen seemed more at home with the Ferrari at Hockenheim than he had been previously.
Was racing well before picking up front-wing damage after being caught up in two incidents, which led to him fading out of the points. Performed better than the numbers suggest.
14 FERNANDO ALONSO
Ferrari F14 T
Start: 7th
Finish: 5th
Strategy: 3 stops (supersoft/soft/soft/supersoft)
Rating: 9
Looked absolutely mighty on the track and even though his team-mate was doing a decent-enough job, still managed to thrash him in qualifying.
Drove an excellent race, particularly in eventually battling past Ricciardo late on. Fifth was as good as it was going to get.
8 ROMAIN GROSJEAN
Lotus-Renault E22
Start: 14th
Finish: DNF
Strategy: retired (soft/supersoft/retired)
Rating: 7
At times, looked a little more ragged than his team-mate, but did a much better job in qualifying.
Didn't have the easiest of races even before he was forced to retire with cooling problems, but hard to see what else he could have done.
13 PASTOR MALDONADO
Lotus-Renault E22
Start: 18th
Finish: 12th
Strategy: 2 stops (supersoft/supersoft/soft)
Rating: 6
Qualifying was poor, but his race drive was very respectable in a car that is currently not good enough to mount a serious points challenge.
Held his own in battle and avoided mistakes, and his reward was to match his season's best of 12th.
20 KEVIN MAGNUSSEN
McLaren-Mercedes MP4-29
Start: 4th
Finish: 9th
Strategy: 3 stops (supersoft/soft/soft/supersoft)
Rating: 8
Looked superb from the start of practice and comfortably outpaced team-mate Button during qualifying.
Nothing he could have done to avoid the first-corner clash with Massa but recovered well to salvage points. His performance deserved a more spectacular result.
22 JENSON BUTTON
McLaren-Mercedes MP4-29
Start: 11th
Finish: 8th
Strategy: 3 stops (supersoft/soft/soft/supersoft)
Rating: 7
Didn't look as comfortable as his team-mate during practice and blamed a lack of balance for just missing out on Q3.
Still drove a decent race even though he had to back out of an attempted two-stopper late on, bagging some solid points.
11 SERGIO PEREZ
Force India-Mercedes VJM07
Start: 10th
Finish: 10th
Strategy: 3 stops (supersoft/soft/soft/supersoft)
Rating: 7
Had the sky-high track temperatures held, Perez would have excelled, but in cooler conditions he didn't have a significant tyre advantage, so had to work hard for his point.
Not quite as convincing as Hulkenberg in the race after matching him in qualifying, but overall a solid weekend.
27 NICO HULKENBERG
Force India-Mercedes VJM07
Start: 9th
Finish: 7th
Strategy: 2 stops (supersoft/soft/soft)
Rating: 8
A very good weekend's work from Hulkenberg, who was the faster of the two Force India drivers by a tiny margin in qualifying, but more comfortably in the race.
There's no way he could have beaten the six ahead of him, so got the maximum out of the car.
21 ESTEBAN GUTIERREZ
Sauber-Ferrari C33
Start: 16th
Finish: 14th
Strategy: 3 stops (supersoft/supersoft/soft/soft)
Rating: 5
Didn't look as strong as his team-mate, and his race pace was not as good, but did at least extract a laptime when he needed to in Q1.
Three-place penalty for Silverstone collision hurt him and left him to dice irrelevantly in the lower midfield.
99 ADRIAN SUTIL
Sauber-Ferrari C33
Start: 15th
Finish: DNF
Strategy: retired (supersoft/soft/soft/soft/retired)
Rating: 5
Looked good in practice and should have made Q2 no problem, but failed to put a lap together after the red flag in Q1.
His race drive was fine, although he didn't have the pace to mount a serious points challenge, until the engine cut, causing him to spin exiting the last corner.
25 JEAN-ERIC VERGNE
Toro Rosso-Renault STR9
Start: 13th
Finish: 13th
Strategy: 3 stops (supersoft/soft/supersoft/soft)
Rating: 4
Disappointing in qualifying, with his old ways of overdriving rearing their head.
During the race, did himself no favours with several track-limits infringements, leading to a five-second penalty. Below the high standards he has set this year.
26 DANIIL KVYAT
Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR9
Start: 8th
Finish: DNF
Strategy: retired (supersoft/soft/soft/retired)
Rating: 6
Did a great job to make it through to Q3. But his chance of a result vanished when he made a bold move around the outside of Perez but failed to leave the Force India sufficient room. The result was a collision and a spin, which was followed later by a firey retirement.
Superb in qualifying, but a disappointing misjudgement in the race.
19 FELIPE MASSA
Williams-Mercedes FW36
Start: 3rd
Finish: DNF
Strategy: retired (supersoft/retired)
Rating: 6
The Brazilian was unable to find the same kind of performance that his team-mate did in Q3, having looked on a similar level up to then.
While ideally he would have left Magnussen some room at Turn 1, he was unsighted to the presence of the McLaren that turned his world upside down.
77 VALTTERI BOTTAS
Williams-Renault FW36
Start: 2nd
Finish: 2nd
Strategy: 2 stops (supersoft/soft/soft)
Rating: 9
Bottas was spectacularly unflustered on his way to second in the race. Yes, he had the top speed, but deserves credit for not putting a foot wrong while Hamilton attacked late on.
Maybe could have been fractionally quicker in qualifying after several late oversteer moments, but not by enough to take pole.
4 MAX CHILTON
Marussia-Ferrari MR-03
Start: 21st
Finish: 17th
Strategy: 3 stops (supersoft/soft/soft/supersoft)
Rating: 5
Never showed the kind of pace Bianchi was able to extract from the Marussia and couldn't repass Kobayashi after losing a position at his first pitstop.
Losing his qualifying simulation on Saturday morning is a mitigating factor, but still a disappointing weekend.
17 JULES BIANCHI
Marussia-Ferrari MR-03
Start: 17th
Finish: 15th
Strategy: 2 stops (supersoft/soft/supersoft)
Rating: 8
A strong weekend for Bianchi, who qualified well and managed to recover from a car-related problem that held him back off the line to pass Kobayashi, Chilton and Ericsson within just four laps.
Given the pace of the cars up the road, there was no way he could have done any better.
9 MARCUS ERICSSON
Caterham-Renault CT05
Start: 22nd (pits)
Finish: 18th
Strategy: 2 stops (supersoft/soft/soft)
Rating: 6
Two of Ericsson's practice sessions were interrupted by car problems, which also kept him out of qualifying. On top of that, he had to serve an early stop/go penalty for Caterham breaking parc ferme regulations.
In those circumstances, a distant last is probably a par score.
10 KAMUI KOBAYASHI
Caterham-Renault CT05
Start: 19th
Finish: 16th
Strategy: 3 stops (supersoft/soft/soft/supersoft)
Rating: 7
When you are in a Caterham, finishing ahead of anyone not in a green car is, by definition, a job well done.
Kobayashi managed to split the Marussias in both qualifying and the race, deserving particular credit for repulsing Chilton's attempt to undercut him at the final round of stops.
EDD STRAW rates the field's performances in a German Grand Prix that featured some stunning moments of wheel-to-wheel racing, and a few that went awry
1 SEBASTIAN VETTEL
Red Bull-Renault RB10
Start: 6th
Finish: 4th
Strategy: 3 stops (supersoft/soft/supersoft/soft)
Rating: 8
Still just behind his team-mate on pace, but drove a good, combative race to emerge with what was probably as good a result as a Red Bull was going to get.
Still looks a little hesitant on turn-in and needs to get on top of the car, but at least making progress.
3 DANIEL RICCIARDO
Red Bull-Renault RB10
Start: 5th
Finish: 6th
Strategy: 3 stops (supersoft/soft/supersoft/soft)
Rating: 9
Again, was smoother and quicker than Vettel but even more impressive was the way he fought back after being forced to take evasive action to miss the inverted Massa at the start.
Drove stunningly in wheel-to-wheel combat with Alonso and nearly stole fifth from him at the line.
6 NICO ROSBERG
Mercedes F1 W05
Start: 1st
Finish: 1st
Strategy: 2 stops (supersoft/soft/soft)
Rating: 8
It was a good job he was unopposed by Hamilton during Q3, because pressing the DRS button a fraction too early on his second run cost him a chance to improve.
Even so, did a solid job to take pole and then didn't put a foot wrong in the race.
44 LEWIS HAMILTON
Mercedes F1 W05
Start: 20th
Finish: 3rd
Strategy: 3 stops (soft/soft/supersoft/supersoft)
Rating: 9
Can't be blamed for what happened in qualifying, and probably would have taken pole but for the brake failure.
Recovered superbly, but had he avoided that clash with Button, he would surely have finished second. Excellent, but not flawless.
7 KIMI RAIKKONEN
Ferrari F14 T
Start: 12th
Finish: 11th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft/supersoft/soft/supersoft)
Rating: 7
The result on paper is poor, but actually Raikkonen seemed more at home with the Ferrari at Hockenheim than he had been previously.
Was racing well before picking up front-wing damage after being caught up in two incidents, which led to him fading out of the points. Performed better than the numbers suggest.
14 FERNANDO ALONSO
Ferrari F14 T
Start: 7th
Finish: 5th
Strategy: 3 stops (supersoft/soft/soft/supersoft)
Rating: 9
Looked absolutely mighty on the track and even though his team-mate was doing a decent-enough job, still managed to thrash him in qualifying.
Drove an excellent race, particularly in eventually battling past Ricciardo late on. Fifth was as good as it was going to get.
8 ROMAIN GROSJEAN
Lotus-Renault E22
Start: 14th
Finish: DNF
Strategy: retired (soft/supersoft/retired)
Rating: 7
At times, looked a little more ragged than his team-mate, but did a much better job in qualifying.
Didn't have the easiest of races even before he was forced to retire with cooling problems, but hard to see what else he could have done.
13 PASTOR MALDONADO
Lotus-Renault E22
Start: 18th
Finish: 12th
Strategy: 2 stops (supersoft/supersoft/soft)
Rating: 6
Qualifying was poor, but his race drive was very respectable in a car that is currently not good enough to mount a serious points challenge.
Held his own in battle and avoided mistakes, and his reward was to match his season's best of 12th.
20 KEVIN MAGNUSSEN
McLaren-Mercedes MP4-29
Start: 4th
Finish: 9th
Strategy: 3 stops (supersoft/soft/soft/supersoft)
Rating: 8
Looked superb from the start of practice and comfortably outpaced team-mate Button during qualifying.
Nothing he could have done to avoid the first-corner clash with Massa but recovered well to salvage points. His performance deserved a more spectacular result.
22 JENSON BUTTON
McLaren-Mercedes MP4-29
Start: 11th
Finish: 8th
Strategy: 3 stops (supersoft/soft/soft/supersoft)
Rating: 7
Didn't look as comfortable as his team-mate during practice and blamed a lack of balance for just missing out on Q3.
Still drove a decent race even though he had to back out of an attempted two-stopper late on, bagging some solid points.
11 SERGIO PEREZ
Force India-Mercedes VJM07
Start: 10th
Finish: 10th
Strategy: 3 stops (supersoft/soft/soft/supersoft)
Rating: 7
Had the sky-high track temperatures held, Perez would have excelled, but in cooler conditions he didn't have a significant tyre advantage, so had to work hard for his point.
Not quite as convincing as Hulkenberg in the race after matching him in qualifying, but overall a solid weekend.
27 NICO HULKENBERG
Force India-Mercedes VJM07
Start: 9th
Finish: 7th
Strategy: 2 stops (supersoft/soft/soft)
Rating: 8
A very good weekend's work from Hulkenberg, who was the faster of the two Force India drivers by a tiny margin in qualifying, but more comfortably in the race.
There's no way he could have beaten the six ahead of him, so got the maximum out of the car.
21 ESTEBAN GUTIERREZ
Sauber-Ferrari C33
Start: 16th
Finish: 14th
Strategy: 3 stops (supersoft/supersoft/soft/soft)
Rating: 5
Didn't look as strong as his team-mate, and his race pace was not as good, but did at least extract a laptime when he needed to in Q1.
Three-place penalty for Silverstone collision hurt him and left him to dice irrelevantly in the lower midfield.
99 ADRIAN SUTIL
Sauber-Ferrari C33
Start: 15th
Finish: DNF
Strategy: retired (supersoft/soft/soft/soft/retired)
Rating: 5
Looked good in practice and should have made Q2 no problem, but failed to put a lap together after the red flag in Q1.
His race drive was fine, although he didn't have the pace to mount a serious points challenge, until the engine cut, causing him to spin exiting the last corner.
25 JEAN-ERIC VERGNE
Toro Rosso-Renault STR9
Start: 13th
Finish: 13th
Strategy: 3 stops (supersoft/soft/supersoft/soft)
Rating: 4
Disappointing in qualifying, with his old ways of overdriving rearing their head.
During the race, did himself no favours with several track-limits infringements, leading to a five-second penalty. Below the high standards he has set this year.
26 DANIIL KVYAT
Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR9
Start: 8th
Finish: DNF
Strategy: retired (supersoft/soft/soft/retired)
Rating: 6
Did a great job to make it through to Q3. But his chance of a result vanished when he made a bold move around the outside of Perez but failed to leave the Force India sufficient room. The result was a collision and a spin, which was followed later by a firey retirement.
Superb in qualifying, but a disappointing misjudgement in the race.
19 FELIPE MASSA
Williams-Mercedes FW36
Start: 3rd
Finish: DNF
Strategy: retired (supersoft/retired)
Rating: 6
The Brazilian was unable to find the same kind of performance that his team-mate did in Q3, having looked on a similar level up to then.
While ideally he would have left Magnussen some room at Turn 1, he was unsighted to the presence of the McLaren that turned his world upside down.
77 VALTTERI BOTTAS
Williams-Renault FW36
Start: 2nd
Finish: 2nd
Strategy: 2 stops (supersoft/soft/soft)
Rating: 9
Bottas was spectacularly unflustered on his way to second in the race. Yes, he had the top speed, but deserves credit for not putting a foot wrong while Hamilton attacked late on.
Maybe could have been fractionally quicker in qualifying after several late oversteer moments, but not by enough to take pole.
4 MAX CHILTON
Marussia-Ferrari MR-03
Start: 21st
Finish: 17th
Strategy: 3 stops (supersoft/soft/soft/supersoft)
Rating: 5
Never showed the kind of pace Bianchi was able to extract from the Marussia and couldn't repass Kobayashi after losing a position at his first pitstop.
Losing his qualifying simulation on Saturday morning is a mitigating factor, but still a disappointing weekend.
17 JULES BIANCHI
Marussia-Ferrari MR-03
Start: 17th
Finish: 15th
Strategy: 2 stops (supersoft/soft/supersoft)
Rating: 8
A strong weekend for Bianchi, who qualified well and managed to recover from a car-related problem that held him back off the line to pass Kobayashi, Chilton and Ericsson within just four laps.
Given the pace of the cars up the road, there was no way he could have done any better.
9 MARCUS ERICSSON
Caterham-Renault CT05
Start: 22nd (pits)
Finish: 18th
Strategy: 2 stops (supersoft/soft/soft)
Rating: 6
Two of Ericsson's practice sessions were interrupted by car problems, which also kept him out of qualifying. On top of that, he had to serve an early stop/go penalty for Caterham breaking parc ferme regulations.
In those circumstances, a distant last is probably a par score.
10 KAMUI KOBAYASHI
Caterham-Renault CT05
Start: 19th
Finish: 16th
Strategy: 3 stops (supersoft/soft/soft/supersoft)
Rating: 7
When you are in a Caterham, finishing ahead of anyone not in a green car is, by definition, a job well done.
Kobayashi managed to split the Marussias in both qualifying and the race, deserving particular credit for repulsing Chilton's attempt to undercut him at the final round of stops.