Ratings | Verstappen fastest at Silverstone, Sainz luckiest
- GPblog.com
The British Grand Prix was a spectacle. With battles until the last lap, drivers were pushed to the limit to achieve success here, but some succeeded better than others. GPblog gives the drivers grades for their performances throughout the weekend.
Sainz: 9.5
Carlos Sainz has scored his first win in F1 and deserves compliments. He drove a strong qualifying and stood his ground when his team came up with crazy team orders. However, we must remain critical. The Spaniard gave the lead to Verstappen and was slower than his teammate, who drove with a broken front wing.
Perez: 9
Sergio Perez had a mixed weekend. In qualifying, he finished fourth and in the race, he was a little too wild at the second start and sustained damage. A great stint on the medium tyre and a safety car at the right time brought him back into the race. He fought his way back up to second place in the closing stages of the race.
Hamilton: 9.5
Lewis Hamilton smelled the chance of victory when Verstappen dropped out and chased down the Ferrari duo. The safety car didn't work out for the Brit, but on new softs everything was still possible. In the duel with Perez, however, the Mexican proved to be more cunning than the seven-time world champion.
Leclerc: 7.5
Charles Leclerc ruined his qualifying with a spin and had to start from third place. The Monegasque also suffered damage at the second start, but it didn't bother him. He was fast, got everything out of his car, but was not for the first time disadvantaged by his own team. Especially the decision to leave him out during the safety car was a big blunder.
Alonso: 8.5
Fernando Alonso just missed out on the battle for the podium, but he got everything out of his Alpine again this weekend.
Norris: 8
Lando Norris regretted that his team did not bring him in during the safety car. He lost a place to Alonso and did not regain it.
Verstappen: 7
Max Verstappen was clearly the fastest driver at Silverstone, but a yellow flag in qualifying (caused by Leclerc's spin) and a piece of carbon fiber in the race prevented him from achieving a better result. For Max, the damage caused by Leclerc's fourth place was fortunately not too bad.
Schumacher: 9
Mick Schumacher finally got his first points in Formula 1. Of course, he had some help from all the crashes, but you have to be there to take advantage of them.
Vettel: 7
On the first lap, Sebastian Vettel drove Alexander Albon into the wall, but Vettel himself remained unscathed. He drove to points again in a solid performance.
Magnussen: 7.5
Kevin Magnussen was bullied by his team in the closing stages of the race. He had been faster than Mick all weekend, was also ahead of his team mate, but Haas decided to keep Magnussen out on old medium tyres during the safety car. That the Dane retained the top ten spot is a fine achievement.
Stroll: 6.5
Lance Stroll was again unable to win for Aston Martin this weekend and on new mediums did not even manage to take the point away from Magnussen.
Latifi: 7
Nicholas Latifi surprised friend and foe with his performance in qualifying. He drove to Q3 in the rain on Saturday for the first time in his F1 career, and in an older version of the FW44.
Ricciardo: 5
Daniel Ricciardo drove an embarrassing race at Silverstone. Where his teammate was up front, the Australian never claimed any points this weekend, despite dropouts from six drivers.
Tsunoda: 4.5
Yuki Tsunoda threw away a great result for AlphaTauri by taking too risky an action on his teammate. After his blunder in Montreal, this is the second big mistake of the season.
Ocon: 4.5
Esteban Ocon was once again unable to match his teammate this weekend, but seemed to be on his way to some points. However, a problem with the car put an early end to his race.
Gasly: 4.5
Pierre Gasly was pretty disappointed after the race. A good result was possible, but a wild move by his teammate prevented the Faenza-based team from scoring any points.
Bottas: 4.5
Valtteri Bottas was again slower than his teammate on Saturday, but was unable to take revenge on Sunday. His car broke down prematurely.
Russell: 5
George Russell gambled on the hard tyre after a poor qualifying session, but didn't take into account his lack of speed in the early stages. He changed lanes at random and hit Gasly in the process. It meant an early end to his race, but the action to sprint directly to Zhou was classy.
Zhou: 7
Guanyu Zhou was in the spotlight in the wrong way on Sunday. On Saturday, the Chinese driver had done so well with a ninth place start, but he could never have done anything about Russell's blow.
Albon: 4.5
When your team gives you the latest car, you hope you get the best performance. Alexander Albon did not manage to do that this weekend. There was little he could do about the crash on Sunday, but that Latifi and not he ended up in Q2 and even Q3, is something the Thai can take credit for.