AUTOSPORT's Bahrain GP driver ratings

1 SEBASTIAN VETTEL
Red Bull-Renault RB10

Start: 10th
Finish: 6th
Strategy: 2 stops (medium/soft/soft)

Rating: 7

Vettel found himself in the unusual position of being only the second-most impressive Red Bull driver in Bahrain.

Throughout the weekend, while by no means slow, he looked a little more ragged than Ricciardo and lost out to his team-mate in the post-safety car scramble at the end of the race.

As Vettel admitted, "Daniel proved that there was a little more to get, I couldn't really get to that".

A solid, rather than spectacular, weekend from Vettel.

3 DANIEL RICCIARDO
Red Bull-Renault RB10

Start: 13th
Finish: 4th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/medium/soft)

Rating: 9

There are no two ways about it, Ricciardo was quite simply the better Red Bull driver throughout the Bahrain GP weekend.

At a track where he has excelled in the past, the Australian was smooth, quick and consistent and to his credit showed in the early laps that he wasn't afraid to go wheel-to-wheel with Vettel.

There were a few fraught moments in the race, notably when he went off while dicing with Raikkonen, but an opportunistic pass on Vettel late on crowned a very strong weekend.

6 NICO ROSBERG
Mercedes F1 W05

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

Rating: 8

Rosberg was second favourite heading into qualifying, but appeared to ensure that the car came to him set-up wise as the track cooled in the evening, allowing him to snatch pole.

This was despite a ragged moment on his second Q3 run, which was aborted once it became clear Hamilton was no faster.

Rosberg looked to have the edge on pace in the race, but an average start cost him the lead.

He was quick, quicker than Hamilton in fact, but will be kicking himself for not making it count.

44 LEWIS HAMILTON
Mercedes F1 W05

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

Rating: 9

A mistake under pressure on his final Q3 lap led to him suffering a big lock-up and running off the track at Turn 1, meaning his underwhelming first run counted for his second place on the grid.

Aced the start but didn't have the pace to drop Rosberg in the first stint.

The safety car dealt him a tough hand, but he kept calm under pressure and despite Rosberg having a tyre advantage defended superbly.

Pace wasn't as impressive as Rosberg's, but his racecraft was better.

7 KIMI RAIKKONEN
Ferrari F14 T

Start: 5th
Finish: 10th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft/soft/medium/medium)

Rating: 7

Further suspension tweaks allowed Raikkonen to continue to make progress with the Ferrari. The trouble is, the car wasn't particularly competitive and Raikkonen flattered it by putting it on the third row.

A poor first lap, partly down to contact with Magnussen, undid some of that good work and from then on there was little he could do to make up ground because both Ferraris struggled to be able to overtake.

Showed his race pace was no slower than Alonso's by sticking to his team-mate in the final stint.

14 FERNANDO ALONSO
Ferrari F14 T

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

Rating: 8

Complained of a slight loss of engine power in qualifying but the fact that he started and finished ninth tells a story of where the Ferrari is at pace wise.

A good first lap allowed him to get into the pack squabbling over third place, but he was never anything more than an interloper.

His wave of the first in mock triumph as he took the chequered flag left you in no doubt as to what Alonso thought of the competitiveness of his machinery.

8 ROMAIN GROSJEAN
Lotus-Renault E22

Start: 16th
Finish: 12th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft/soft/medium/soft)

Rating: 7

The Lotus was an evil-looking machine in Bahrain, but Grosjean did at least look a little more in control of it than his team-mate.

The car showed no signs of being anywhere near Q3 pace, but Grosjean did well to bump his team-mate out in the dying seconds of Q1, although he probably should have beaten Gutierrez in Q2.

The race pace was a little better, but even with a perfect grand prix, he would probably have finished only one place higher.

13 PASTOR MALDONADO
Lotus-Renault E22

Start: 17th
Finish: 14th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft/soft/medium/soft)

Rating: 4

Maldonado is never anything less than committed on track, and there was no sight more spectacular in Bahrain than him trying to hang on to the unwieldy Lotus and drag it to a laptime.

Booting Gutierrez into a roll at Turn 1 wasn't his finest hour.

In mitigation, Maldonado did rightly point out that the Mexican played a small part in his own downfall by over-running the entry to the corner, but it was a needless collision that the stewards understandably blamed the Lotus driver for.

20 KEVIN MAGNUSSEN
McLaren-Mercedes MP4-29

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

Rating: 6

Lagged three tenths behind Button in Q3, although given Button's qualifying lap was reckoned to be pretty close to the potential of the car that was still a reasonable effort from Magnussen, who was slower in the first and second sectors.

In the race, Magnussen had a poor first lap, clipping Raikkonen on his way back to 11th but didn't quite have the pace necessary to force his way into contention for as strong a result as Button.

A clutch problem eventually put him out.

22 JENSON BUTTON
McLaren-Mercedes MP4-29

Start: 6th
Finish: 17th (DNF)
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/soft/medium)

Rating: 8

It's a shame that Button's 250th grand prix start will go down in the record books as a 17th-place 'finish' because he deserved much more.

After a good qualifying performance, he was strong in the race and reckoned he had the pace to challenge the Force Indias.

Realistically, he probably would have finished fifth had a clutch problem not intervened, which would have been a fine result given that practice suggested the McLaren wouldn't be a strong podium contender.

11 SERGIO PEREZ
Force India-Mercedes VJM07

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

Rating: 9

After a dismal start to the season, Perez bounced back with a combative first podium finish since the 2012 Italian GP.

It was a result that was on the cards on Friday, when he was the best non-Mercedes driver on long-run pace.

He was quick over a lap too, and noticeably able to drive more smoothly than team-mate Hulkenberg.

Qualifying wasn't perfect, but it was good enough and in the race he was constructively combative to prevail in a tight scrap for third. Excellent.

27 NICO HULKENBERG
Force India-Mercedes VJM07

Start: 11th
Finish: 5th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/soft/medium)

Rating: 7

This wasn't the easiest of weekends for Hulkenberg, who made a couple of errors on his final Q2 lap, which relegated him to a sixth-row start.

A strong first stint got him into contention for the podium, but he was bested by Perez in battle and will also be kicking himself for running allowing Ricciardo to get past him late in the race.

More ragged than Perez, Hulkenberg nonetheless drove well, just perhaps not as well as we're used to.

21 ESTEBAN GUTIERREZ
Sauber-Ferrari C33

Start: 15th
Finish: DNF
Strategy: retired (soft/soft/soft/retired)

Rating: 6

Gutierrez had a reasonable weekend until his world was turned upside-down by Maldonado, although the Mexican has to take a tiny fraction of the responsibility for creating the circumstances for Maldonado to barrel into him by outbraking himself and running wide on the way into the corner.

He outperformed Sutil in qualifying, although his 14kg weight advantage played its part in that, but generally did a reasonable enough job in a Sauber that didn't look to give its drivers a great deal of confidence.

99 ADRIAN SUTIL
Sauber-Ferrari C33

Start: 22nd
Finish: DNF
Strategy: retired (soft/soft/medium)

Rating: 5

Sutil hasn't had much to smile about so far this season and while waiting for the lightweight Sauber to be introduced in Spain, all he can do is bide his time.

But just as in Malaysia, he didn't make life easy for himself in qualifying, both earning relegation to the back of the grid for impeding Grosjean while trying to let him through and failing to improve on his second run.

Could make little impression in the race as demonstrated by the fact Bianchi's Marussia was in a position to attack him, resulting in the collision that ended Sutil's race.

25 JEAN-ERIC VERGNE
Toro Rosso-Renault STR9

Start: 14th
Finish: DNF
Strategy: retired (soft/medium/soft/retired)

Rating: 5

Another character-building weekend for Vergne, who complained about being down on power during qualifying.

That said, he had been just behind team-mate Kvyat on their Saturday-practice qualifying simulations, and remained there in qualifying.

His race was ruined when he clashed with Grosjean's Lotus on the opening lap, giving him a puncture and sending him to the back. Unfortunately, he had damage so the car was slow, forcing his retirement.

Has the pace, but needs to steer clear of trouble on the opening lap.

26 DANIIL KVYAT
Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR9

Start: 12th
Finish: 11th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft/soft/medium/soft)

Rating: 8

Kvyat again impressed, shading his more experienced team-mate in qualifying and driving another level-headed race.

While he missed out on a third consecutive points finish, the Toro Rosso wasn't quite as strong on race pace as it had appeared to be in practice, and he did a good job to keep Grosjean's Lotus at bay.

Crucially, kept it clean and avoided any rookie errors and once again showed that he has the speed and mentality to cut it at the top level.

19 FELIPE MASSA
Williams-Mercedes FW36

Start: 7th
Finish: 7th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft/soft/soft/medium)

Rating: 7

Was a little smoother than Bottas all weekend but struggled with oversteer on his qualifying lap and ended up almost three tenths slower than his team-mate.

Made up for that with a great start to run third early on, but soon found himself battling against worsening tyre degradation.

Pitted before the safety car was deployed, which possibly stopped him being able to attack the Red Bulls in the closing stages, but given the Williams couldn't two-stop and the timing of the safety car seventh was a decent finish.

77 VALTTERI BOTTAS
Williams-Renault FW36

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

Rating: 6

The Finn hustled the Williams impressively during the weekend, but with the FW36 struggling on tyre degradation Bottas perhaps exacerbated this, hence becoming the first driver in the race to make a regular pitstop.

Fought well in the race, although there were some rough edges, such as his poor launch and going off at Turn 1 when caught out by Raikkonen braking earlier than expected.

Even so, eighth was about par in the circumstances, although still one place behind Massa.

4 MAX CHILTON
Marussia-Ferrari MR-03

Start: 21st
Finish: 13th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft/soft/medium/soft)

Rating: 6

Struggled to get a handle on the set-up during practice, so switched to Bianchi's settings ahead of qualifying.

Mistakes at Turn 4 and Turn 10 cost time, leaving him six tenths slower than his team-mate and, surprisingly, Ericsson on the grid.

Drove a decent race, comfortably beating Kobayashi and also finishing ahead of the delayed Maldonado, who he was quick enough to keep at arm's length in the final few laps.

After a disappointing qualifying, a better race performance.

17 JULES BIANCHI
Marussia-Ferrari MR-03

Start: 19th
Finish: 16th
Strategy: 4 stops (soft/soft/medium/soft/medium)

Rating: 5

Bianchi was satisfied with the way he drove his qualifying lap, but suggested that the use of the electrical energy wasn't perfect and led to him ending up behind Kobayashi's Caterham.

Ran well in the early stages of the race, but after one fraught exchange with Sutil, attacked him on the following lap and collided with the Sauber.

It seemed it was a late dive and he lost the rear, but the team and driver felt Sutil was to blame for turning in.

The stewards blamed Bianchi, earning him a penalty.

9 MARCUS ERICSSON
Caterham-Renault CT05

Start: 20th
Finish: DNF
Strategy: retired (soft/soft/retired)

Rating: 6

The Swede didn't have the same level of performance as Kobayashi, but that's to be expected considering he's only in his third grand prix weekend.

That said, the eight-tenth gap in qualifying probably wasn't representative as a slow entry onto start/finish after letting Vergne past and a slight lack of power held him back.

Did a respectable job in the race before retiring with an oil-leak related to the MGU-H while battling with Chilton's Marussia.

10 KAMUI KOBAYASHI
Caterham-Renault CT05

Start: 18th
Finish: 15th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft/soft/medium)

Rating: 7

Kobayashi seemed to get about as much out of the car as he could during Q1 to end up only four tenths off the Q2 cut-off.

Again drove an intelligent race, passing slower cars efficiently when he needed to and avoiding wasting time dicing with those that he had no chance of staying ahead of.

Had to save fuel in the final stint, so wasn't able to attack Maldonado and Chilton ahead.

Not a great deal more he could have done.