Driver ratings: Verstappen and Alonso 'top of the class', Sainz disappoints

The first race of 2023 has taken place. Max Verstappen won the Bahrain Grand Prix brilliantly and Sunday's finest fighting came from Fernando Alonso. The two earned top marks. Grades are generally high, following fine performances by the drivers. Carlos Sainz was only a little disappointing, Nyck de Vries was somewhat mediocre and the only insufficient score went to Esteban Ocon.

The Dutchman drove to a dominant win in a completely flawless race. The Red Bull Racing driver dominated the entire weekend. Verstappen also grabbed pole position.

Perez's race was not wrong. The Mexican duly fulfilled his role at Red Bull by making it a one-two. However, the Mexican did lose a position at the start of the race and was very much behind teammate.

We saw some very nice battles from Alonso. The Aston Martin driver finished third after a nice race. At the start, he lost a few spots to the Mercedes drivers. This was partly due to an error in judgement by his teammate. Alonso fought his way back in battles that were a bit on the edge here and there, but very nice.

Sainz was disappointing. The Spaniard was a lot slower than his teammate and could not drive on podium pace like Charles Leclerc. In the end, Sainz also almost got in trouble with Lewis Hamilton

Hamilton did not drive a super impressive race, but he did beat his teammate and was able to stay close behind Sainz's Ferrari.

The Canadian was still able to finish high in Bahrain after poor preparation and major injuries. Stroll struggled badly in the closing stages with his injured wrists, but persevered and managed to keep George Russel behind him

He was slower than his teammate, but it was certainly not bad. The Brit countered Alonso a lot and had a nice fight with the Spaniard. Due to the material, he could not win that fight.

Bottas drove a very strong race from P12 to P8. He stayed out of trouble and we didn't see much else from him.

Gasly drove back to the points from P20. After a poor performance on Saturday, the Frenchman had a cool race on Sunday. Especially compared to his teammate's race.

Albon immediately scored a point for Williams. That is a strong start to the season by Williams standards. Perhaps the car is not so bad this year, but the Briton's steady race deserves a good mark.

With an unwieldy car like the AlphaTauri, it is clever that Tsunoda still almost managed to get the final point. The Japanese driver also managed to make a nice double 'catch-up' move on Guanyu Zhou and his teammate Nyck de Vries

Sargeant was the best performing rookie, taking 12th place with a Williams; A steady race for the American who gained four spots from starting spot 16.

The Dane did not drive a standout race, but made up a lot from his starting position. Magnussen drove from P17 to P13

The second Dutch F1 driver on the current grid had a poor qualifying session with many mistakes of his own. He made up fairly well on race day, though not for points. As a rookie, De Vries drove from P19 to P14 and was a good teammate by helping Tsunoda with his overtaking move

Hulkenberg may be back after several years, but considering the number of races behind his name, it was still disappointing. After a strong qualifying, he lost quite a few places as one of the few (finishing) drivers.

Valtteri Bottas' teammate was disappointing. His teammate picked up good points for Alfa Romeo and made his own predictions come true, but Zhou could not match the Finn by a long shot and finished three places lower than his starting position

There doesn't appear to be much in the McLaren. It is difficult to quantify Norris because, although he probably tried hard, it was not fast and there were problems. However, the Brit did stay behind Hamilton in the DRS, albeit a lap behind, for a long time and was able to hang on to his battles. That Norris did finish is actually quite an achievement

Ocon could not finish his race, but also had plenty of problems when he did. The Frenchman received a total of 20-second penalties. Two five-second penalties he received through his own fault. The Alpine driver was wrong on the grid at the start and went over the track limits too many times during the race.

Leclerc did little wrong over the weekend, but the Ferrari is not yet fast enough to challenge Red Bull Racing. The Monegasque was a lot faster than his teammate and seemed to be heading for a podium finish with a steady race. However, with no warnings on the wheel, the SF23 stalled. Leclerc did nothing wrong, but went home with zero points.

One of three rookies, but Piastri was the only rookie not to finish. His car gave up early on and so we haven't really seen the Australian in action yet. In Saudi Arabia, he will hopefully be able to show his worth for the first time.