Belgian Grand Prix driver ratings

6 NICO ROSBERG
Mercedes F1 W06

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

Rating: 7

Rosberg felt he was "one step ahead" of Hamilton after Friday practice, but then the champion pulled his customary rabbit out of the hat and Rosberg found himself second again in qualifying.

He started the race poorly, but fought back well to get back into second. Though fast in the middle of the race, he could never quite get back on terms. With Hamilton on his present form, Rosberg cannot afford any sloppy mistakes.

44 LEWIS HAMILTON
Mercedes F1 W06

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

Rating: 10

Hamilton admitted he's not such a fan of Spa, probably because success depends more of car set-up than his spectacular driver input. He said he'd historically struggled to string the crucial second sector together, but absolutely nailed it this time to take pole by almost half a second.

He then resisted Perez's first-lap attentions before dominating the race, always able to respond to any later advances from Rosberg. The champion was pretty much faultless in victory.

3 DANIEL RICCIARDO
Red Bull-Renault RB11

Start: 5th
Finish: Retired
Strategy: (soft/medium/retired)

Rating: 9

Red Bull better understands how to set the RB11 up now, and Ricciardo drove like a man more at ease with its limitations.

He felt more comfortable with the 'Spa' rear wing, as opposed to the skinnier 'Monza' version tried in practice, and did well to bother the Mercedes-powered customers in qualifying, given how much Red Bull-Renault "bleeds" on the straights. The team reckoned he was a podium contender without the ERS failure that ran his early bath.

26 DANIIL KVYAT
Red Bull-Renault RB11

Start: 12th
Finish: 4th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/medium/soft)

Rating: 9

Kvyat lapped pretty close to Ricciardo's pace in Friday practice, after which he was reprimanded for "not paying attention" when released in front of Felipe Nasr's Sauber in the pits. He qualified a lowly 12th, after a lap he described as "not my best, but not my worst".

Sunday was much better, and the Russian reckoned his charge to fourth was the best drive of his Red Bull career so far. It's difficult to disagree with that.

19 FELIPE MASSA
Williams-Mercedes FW37

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

Rating: 7

Massa abandoned Williams's lower downforce rear wing after Friday practice, but felt the replacement perhaps cost him a little too much straightline speed. He blamed a "frustrating" burst of wheelspin out of the Bus Stop chicane for the 0.148s gap to team-mate Bottas in qualifying.

The Brazilian didn't start the race well, but benefited from the woes of others to climb back into the top six and did well to resist Raikkonen's Ferrari for three quarters of the race.

77 VALTTERI BOTTAS
Williams-Mercedes FW37

Start: 3rd
Finish: 9th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft/soft/soft/medium)

Rating: 6

Bottas did a great job to top a tight qualifying battle for third on the grid, but he started the race sluggishly and struggled for pace on his first set of tyres.

Hopes of recovering into the podium fight were undone when the team fitted a rogue medium tyre at his first pitstop, and the pace loss this caused plus a consequent drive-through meant he fell away from the top-six group. A race to forget.

5 SEBASTIAN VETTEL
Ferrari SF15-T

Start: 8th
Finish: Retired
Strategy: (soft/medium/retired)

Rating: 8

Vettel wasn't fast on Friday, but the few high-fuel laps he did suggested Ferrari would be in the mix at Spa, despite again being slower than Mercedes. He's marked down for a "costly" mistake at the Bus Stop in qualifying, but even a perfect lap wouldn't have placed him on the second row.

Ferrari went aggressive on strategy in a bid to put Vettel on the podium. He drove well in the race, andalmost pulled it off.

7 KIMI RAIKKONEN
Ferrari SF15-T

Start: 16th
Finish: 7th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/soft/medium)

Rating: 7

Ferrari decided to retain Raikkonen for a further season on the eve of this race, but that did nothing to change the Finn's poor luck. He was reprimanded in practice for dangerously obstructing Grosjean, broke down in qualifying, and copped a grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change.

He recovered decently after dropping to second-last by the first corner, but getting stuck behind Massa's Williams after the first round of pitstops halted his progress.

14 FERNANDO ALONSO
McLaren-Honda MP4-30

Start: 20th
Finish: 13th
Strategy: 3 stops (medium/soft/soft)

Rating: 8

Alonso admitted he underperformed in qualifying, where he was almost half a second slower than Button, but an exhaust leak in practice three didn't help his preparation.

He started from the back of the grid after collecting a 55-place grid penalty for a double engine change during practice, but gained five places on the first lap with a storming start. Alonso fought briefly with Nasr's Sauber when possible, but ultimately the car was just too slow here.

22 JENSON BUTTON
McLaren-Honda MP4-30

Start: 19th
Finish: 14th
Strategy: 3 stops (medium/soft/soft/soft)

Rating: 8

One fewer unscheduled engine component changes than Alonso meant Button's grid penalty was a modest 50 places. He felt the qualifying lap he produced for 17th on the timesheet was as good as his 2012 pole lap here, so was frustrated to find himself consigned to the prospect of a lonely race with Alonso.

An immediate ERS deployment problem robbed him of even that joy, so he simply droned around in a race of his own.

11 SERGIO PEREZ
Force India-Mercedes VJM08

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

Rating: 9

Perez has struggled to dial into the set-up of the VJM08 since its recent major overhaul, but he "made a step" here and felt confident from the moment he first turned a wheel on Friday.

He comfortably outqualified Hulkenberg (for the first time since Monaco) and dreamed of a podium in the race (leading briefly), but didn't quite have the pace. Still, this was his best drive for a long time.

27 NICO HULKENBERG
Force India-Mercedes VJM08

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

Rating: 6

Hulkenberg is delighted by developments made with the 'B-spec' VJM08, but he was overshadowed by Perez here, which generally hasn't been the case since the car has improved.

A mistake at La Source combined with a small turbo problem meant he failed to qualify inside the top 10, and a further turbo glitch caused a loss of power on his way to the grid, then stranded him on it before the race got under way.

33 MAX VERSTAPPEN
Toro Rosso-Renault STR10

Start: 18th
Finish: 8th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft/soft/medium/soft)

Rating: 8

Verstappen recovered impressively from a 10-place grid penalty for an engine change, and an electrical glitch with that engine that ruined his qualifying session, to charge up to Kvyat's Red Bull early on.

The turning point was his failure to pass Massa's Williams, which Kvyat did on lap 14. A late switch to softs was worth a shot, but Verstappen botched his chance to pass Raikkonen for seventh. Nevertheless, he did a good job to score points again.

55 CARLOS SAINZ JR
Toro Rosso-Renault STR10

Start: 10th
Finish: Retired
Strategy: (soft/medium/soft/retired)

Rating: 8

Sainz surprised himself by making the top 10 in qualifying, given the team was predicting 13th at best, so he deserves enormous credit for another mega effort on Saturday.

Unfortunately, we never got see what Sainz might have done in the race, thanks to a loss of power that forced him to pit before the start. He joined the action almost two laps down, before retiring the car to save on engine mileage.

8 ROMAIN GROSJEAN
Lotus-Mercedes E23

Start: 9th
Finish: 3rd
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/soft/medium)

Rating: 10

This was easily Grosjean's best race since he regularly bothered Red Bull in the latter part of 2013. He was seventh fastest on Friday, despite missing a session so Jolyon Palmer could drive, and produced his best qualifying performance since Austin 2013 to go fourth quickest, only to be relegated by an earlier gearbox change.

No matter. He picked his way through the field consummately and might have nicked third even without Vettel's penultimate lap tyre blowout.

13 PASTOR MALDONADO
Lotus-Mercedes E23

Start: 7th
Finish: Retired
Strategy: (soft/retired)

Rating: 4

Maldonado crashed heavily at Les Combes on Friday morning, but come qualifying he was in better shape and would have matched Grosjean to the tenth but for a mistake at the final corner on his best lap.

He started ahead of his team-mate on account of Grosjean's grid penalty, but only managed two laps before going way off track exiting Eau Rouge, which caused his car to lose drive. Silly mistakes are proving costly again.

28 WILL STEVENS
Marussia-Ferrari MR-03B

Start: 15th
Finish: 16th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/soft/medium)

Rating: 7

Stevens felt this circuit (which he rates in his own "top three") would play to his strengths, given how comfortable he felt with the updated MR-03B at Silverstone, and he got the better of team-mate Merhi by 0.151s in qualifying.

He started well, but got squeezed between two cars at La Source, which dropped him back. He wasn't quite fast enough to get back on terms with Merhi after that, but it was a decent performance.

98 ROBERTO MERHI
Marussia-Ferrari MR-03B

Start: 17th
Finish: 15th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/soft/medium)

Rating: 7

Merhi is still carrying a weight disadvantage to Stevens, but he reckons recent changes to the differential and brake settings have made the car more predictable and that has allowed him to better explore its limits.

He wasn't far behind his team-mate in qualifying and had slightly better pace than Stevens in the race, after jumping ahead on lap one. Two consecutive strong performances (on contrasting circuits) bode well for the rest of Merhi's season.

9 MARCUS ERICSSON
Sauber-Ferrari C34

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

Rating: 7

Ericsson's new mental approach continues to work well for him, and he is benefiting from structuring his weekends better and not overdriving when things don't go his way.

A Pouhon crash on Friday afternoon was unfortunate, but he bounced back to outqualify team-mate Nasr for the fourth time in five races. The car was disappointingly uncompetitive in the race, so inheriting the final point was welcome. Beating his team-mate again was even more so.

12 FELIPE NASR
Sauber-Ferrari C34

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

Rating: 5

Nasr reckoned Ferrari's latest engine would bring Sauber a 0.4s per lap boost here, but the Swiss team didn't follow up on the promising pace it showed on Friday.

He was mystified by his failure to escape Q1, after completing what felt like a decent (though vibration-affected) lap. An alternative race strategy failed as he lost too much ground on the first lap on the medium tyre. He needs to arrest his recent slide in the intra-team battle.