Japanese Grand Prix driver ratings

6 NICO ROSBERG
Mercedes F1 W06

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

Rating: 7

Rosberg realises he needs to refocus his efforts on qualifying and take more risks to maintain his title challenge, so he was boosted by beating Hamilton for only the second time this season on Saturday.

That pole advantage evaporated through the opening sequence of corners, though, as Hamilton hung him out to dry. Could he have been tougher, or did an overheating engine give him no chance? If he caused the engine to overheat early with his choice of formation lap settings, then it's his own fault.

44 LEWIS HAMILTON
Mercedes F1 W06

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

Rating: 10

The world champion admitted he's never previously felt particularly comfortable around this circuit, but was sure he was on a lap good enough for pole when the red flags flew for Kvyat's spectacular shunt.

He wasn't sure how he'd turn tables on his team-mate in the race, but managed it with a good start and a forceful pass into Turn 2. Hamilton was comfortably the fastest driver on track in the race, even with an overheating engine. The perfect tonic after Singapore.

3 DANIEL RICCIARDO
Red Bull-Renault RB11

Start: 7th
Finish: 15th
Strategy: 2 stops (medium/hard/hard)

Rating: 7

Ricciardo qualified as well as could be expected given Red Bull was less competitive on such a power-sensitive circuit. Even a perfect lap would still have fallen fractionally short of beating Raikkonen's sub-par Q3 effort.

He reckoned his start was "too good" as he tried to squeeze between the Ferrari and Massa's Williams, but arguably he didn't quite leave enough room on the left. The consequent puncture and floor damage put paid to hopes of a proper recovery. A race to forget.

26 DANIIL KVYAT
Red Bull-Renault RB11

Start: Pits
Finish: 13th
Strategy: 3 stops (medium/hard/medium/hard)

Rating: 5

Kvyat was fastest in the wet on Friday, but made a very costly error at the crucial moment in qualifying, dropping a wheel off the track turning into the kink before the hairpin and crashing heavily.

He started from the pits in a rebuilt chassis with a fresh engine, but was a "sitting duck" with handling problems, imbalanced brakes, and reliability concerns with that engine. The Russian did well to pass Ericsson near the end but reckoned "P13 is quite shit". Fair comment.

19 FELIPE MASSA
Williams-Mercedes FW37

Start: 5th
Finish: 17th
Strategy: 3 stops (medium/hard/medium/medium)

Rating: 6

Massa has generally performed very well in qualifying this season, but he was slightly below par in Japan. He admitted to messing up at the chicane on his Q3 lap, but it was the two tenths he dropped to Bottas through the middle sector that made the biggest difference in the end.

The Brazilian made a slow start, then the puncture and aero damage picked up in his collision with Ricciardo ruined his race. He just drove around after that.

77 VALTTERI BOTTAS
Williams-Mercedes FW37

Start: 3rd
Finish: 5th
Strategy: 2 stops (medium/medium/hard)

Rating: 7

Bottas revelled in the improved handling of the FW37 on a track that was always likely to better suit it than Singapore. He produced a fine lap to qualify ahead of both Ferraris and his team-mate.

He lost out to Vettel at the start, and was arguably caught napping when Rosberg dived past at the chicane, but Williams also misread the tyre situation, which meant Bottas was easy meat for Raikkonen at the second round of pitstops.

5 SEBASTIAN VETTEL
Ferrari SF15-T

Start: 4th
Finish: 3rd
Strategy: 2 stops (medium/hard/hard)

Rating: 8

After the ebullient high of Singapore, Ferrari returned to Earth in Japan and found itself embroiled in a fight with Williams for best-of-the-rest behind the runaway Mercedes cars.

Vettel was pleased with his qualifying lap, which was a little surprising given he wound up two tenths adrift of Bottas, but he made up for that with a strong start. He did well to keep pace with Rosberg in the last stint but was ultimately on a hiding to nothing.

7 KIMI RAIKKONEN
Ferrari SF15-T

Start: 6th
Finish: 4th
Strategy: 2 stops (medium/hard/hard)

Rating: 7

Raikkonen was comfortably the faster of the two Ferrari drivers through the early part of qualifying, but finished with a "shit end result" after encountering too much understeer on his Q3 run and improving by just 0.014s compared to Q2.

He avoided a brush with Ricciardo at the start before enjoying a fairly straightforward run to the flag. Raikkonen's pace was comparable to Vettel's once he was clear of Bottas's Williams for the final stint.

14 FERNANDO ALONSO
McLaren-Honda MP4-30

Start: 12th
Finish: 11th
Strategy: 2 stops (medium/medium/hard)

Rating: 9

Alonso felt the lap he produced in Q2 here was the best of his entire career around Suzuka, and reckoned he couldn't repeat it even with 100 sets of new tyres! Shame it was only good enough for 14th on the timesheet...

He drove typically well in the race, expressing clear frustration that his car was not competitive enough to fight properly with those around him. It wasn't possible to do much more with the tools at his disposal.

22 JENSON BUTTON
McLaren-Honda MP4-30

Start: 14th
Finish: 16th
Strategy: 2 stops (hard/medium/medium)

Rating: 7

Button blamed a miscommunication with the team for the incorrect engine setting that spoiled his first run in Q1. When Verstappen then parked his Toro Rosso illegally exiting the hairpin and triggered yellows later in the session, that was Button out early.

He started the race well on the harder tyre, and kept pace with Alonso for a long time, but couldn't pull enough of a gap to avoid getting jumped by Ericsson at the final round of stops, then got stuck behind the Sauber.

11 SERGIO PEREZ
Force India-Mercedes VJM08

Start: 9th
Finish: 12th
Strategy: 3 stops (medium/hard/hard/hard)

Rating: 8

Perez felt his qualifying lap to make Q3 was "120 per cent" of the car's potential around here, admitting the final iteration of the B-spec VJM08 lacked balance and rear grip at Suzuka on Saturday.

A collision with Sainz at Turn 1 in the race was unfortunate, but the car didn't suffer other than a puncture. Perez clawed his way back to 12th, but arguably spent too long trying to pass Ericsson's Sauber at the end.

27 NICO HULKENBERG
Force India-Mercedes VJM08

Start: 13th
Finish: 6th
Strategy: 2 stops (medium/hard/hard)

Rating: 8

Hulkenberg was baffled by his lack of speed after what he felt was a decent lap in Q2, and had to take a three-place grid penalty on top for his collision with Massa in Singapore.

The team felt he was "faultless" in the race, and it's difficult to disagree. He rose from 13th to eighth on lap one and utilised an aggressive early first pitstop to jump the slower Lotuses. He couldn't have achieved a better result in the circumstances.

33 MAX VERSTAPPEN
Toro Rosso-Renault STR10

Start: 17th
Finish: 9th
Strategy: 2 stops (medium/hard/medium)

Rating: 7

Verstappen was comfortably the quickest Toro Rosso in Q1 and was furious when his car shut down on him unexpectedly, but he should have known better than to park so dangerously so deserved his grid penalty.

He was quick in the race but found it difficult to overtake, and was schooled a bit by Kvyat when he tried to go round the outside at 130R. The rookie redeemed himself with superb pace in the final stint to recover two points.

55 CARLOS SAINZ JR
Toro Rosso-Renault STR10

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

Rating: 6

A race of two halves for Sainz, who generally gave a good account of himself with limited practice on his first visit to Suzuka. He was affected by a broken tyre pressure sensor in qualifying, but started the race well, overtook Alonso and kept pace with Hulkenberg early on.

All that unravelled when he damaged his front wing on the pit entry bollard while racing the Lotuses. He lost time changing the nose, then overdrove trying to make up for his mistake.

8 ROMAIN GROSJEAN
Lotus-Mercedes E23

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

Rating: 8

Lotus's ongoing financial woe meant Grosjean lacked a hospitality unit to eat, sleep or get changed in, which he said reminded him of racing in Formula Renault as a teenager.

He shrugged off the gloom with another excellent qualifying performance. The race was relatively straightforward, though he rode his luck with a brief off at the chicane. He couldn't realistically fight Hulkenberg's Force India, but showed just enough pace in the first two stints to keep team-mate Maldonado at bay.

13 PASTOR MALDONADO
Lotus-Mercedes E23

Start: 11th
Finish: 8th
Strategy: 2 stops (medium/medium/hard)

Rating: 7

Maldonado has found it challenging to adjust to Pirelli's increased tyre pressure limits and wasn't comfortable with his car's balance in qualifying, but he recovered well with a strong first lap in the race and used his fresher rubber to keep the pressure on Grosjean throughout.

He was a bit faster in the final stint on the harder tyre, but his team-mate remained crucially out of reach. Nevertheless he did a good job, and deserved to end his five-race scoring drought.

28 WILL STEVENS
Marussia-Ferrari MR-03B

Start: 18th
Finish: 19th
Strategy: 3 stops (medium/hard/medium/medium)

Rating: 6

Stevens won the intra-team qualifying battle by default on account of Rossi encountering unavoidable trouble on both of his Q1 runs, but he was looking slightly stronger in the build-up anyway.

It was a close-run thing in the race, but Stevens held a crucial advantage through the first two stints, until he spun at 130R after being lapped by Bottas. A costly mistake, but a penalty for earlier speeding in the pits would have meant defeat in any case.

53 ALEXANDER ROSSI
Marussia-Ferrari MR-03B

Start: 19th
Finish: 18th
Strategy: 2 stops (medium/hard/medium)

Rating: 7

Rossi was seriously unlucky to encounter Ericsson's spinning Sauber while on his first flying lap in Q1, and even more so to have his second run ruined by Verstappen's illegal parking at the hairpin.

He wasn't quite on Stevens' level through the first stint, but picked his pace up well thereafter and was within striking distance when Stevens spun at high-speed and almost took both Manors out. He has made a very solid start to life in F1.

9 MARCUS ERICSSON
Sauber-Ferrari C34

Start: 15th
Finish: 14th
Strategy: 2 stops (medium/medium/hard)

Rating: 6

This was a disappointingly scruffy weekend given Ericsson's recent form. He spun needlessly at Spoon in Q1 and wound up only 17th fastest in a car that should arguably have been quick enough for Q2 at least.

He started the race well enough, but got stuck behind Button's McLaren in the middle stint, ruined his sturdy defence against Perez with another mistake at Spoon late-on, then got mugged by Kvyat while being lapped by Raikkonen at the chicane.

12 FELIPE NASR
Sauber-Ferrari C34

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

Rating: 5

Nasr feels the updated C34 still lacks downforce, but also felt certain of making Q2 on his second qualifying run but for the yellow flags at the end. He asked why Verstappen could not have parked his Toro Rosso safely out the way. The stewards agreed.

Apart from passing Button's McLaren at Turn 1, the race was disappointing. He suffered a mysterious problem with the steering, which worsened, so elected to retire the car for safety reasons.