European GP 2016 driver ratings

Easy does it. Nico Rosberg effectively had the European GP half won from the moment his team-mate self-destructed in qualifying and was three-quarters of the way to victory from the first corner onwards. With the Safety Car never called upon thereafter, Nico was able to cruise to victory on a circuit tailor-made for his Mercedes car and a near-perfect weekend for the German. "I felt at one with my car, it was a great feeling," he said.

With his lead up to 24 points, almost the equivalent of a full race win, Rosberg once again has control of the championship fight.
Rating out of ten: 9

The sobering post-mortem for Ferrari is that Sebastian Vettel did well to only be within 20 seconds of the lead Mercedes at the chequered flag - and even then, the relatively-modest size of the deficit owed plenty to Rosberg easing off. Vettel could have done nothing more. Three tenths up on his team-mate in qualifying, Sebastian crossed the line almost 20 seconds clear of Kimi Raikkonen. What the German urgently needs, however, is a victory on a very bad day for Mercedes: 45 points adrift of the summit, an unlikely title bid is on the precipice of becoming unfeasible.

But perhaps the most interesting aspect of Vettel's race was his incredulous response to being called in for an early stop after Daniel Ricciardo switched to a two-stopper. While their lead driver stayed out, the Ferrari pitwall seemingly took a U-turn and pulled in Raikkonen instead. "I had a decent feeling, the pace was quite ok, the tyres felt ok and I wanted to keep going," explained Vettel. Another reason to ask who is in charge at Ferrari?
​Rating out of ten: 8

Sergio Perez is a driver on a charge - and so are his career prospects. Three years after being dumped by McLaren, the Force India driver is now the leading contender to replace Kimi Raikkonen at Ferrari if the Finn is dropped at the end of the year. Despite a hefty mistake in Practice Three which triggered a five-place grid penalty, Perez was in sparkling form in Baku and his second podium finish in three races was richly deserved. 

And then there was his cherry-on-top finale to applaud. Sergio's pass on Raikkonen, entirely unnecessary given that the Finn was facing a five-second penalty in any case, felt like a moment carrying far wider significance than merely capping a thoroughly impressive weekend. Was that a message being sent out? Was this the race which clinched Sergio's return to the big time?
Rating out of ten: 9.5

Poor Kimi Raikkonen. As if losing out to his team-mate after being called in for the early stop he didn't want wasn't bad enough, being beaten by a driver widely touted as his likely successor was a cruel blow. "These things hurts," noted Sky F1's Damon Hill. The penalty for just crossing the pitlane entry was marginal and rather harsh too.

As Ferrari made their decision to retain Kimi for 2016 over the summer break last August, the next four races could be make-or-break for his hopes of extending his F1 career for another twelve months.
​Rating out of ten: 6

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To think it was all looking so straightforward for Lewis Hamilton at the start of the weekend when he dominated on Friday and topped the timesheets in all three practice sessions. The world champion's Baku adventure began to unravel to spectacular effect in the messiest qualifying session of his F1 career that culminated in an ugly swipe of the barriers. And that was pretty much that.

While he sensibly played it safe through the opening stages of Sunday's race to avoid any further significant damage, his recovery effectively stalled at the halfway stage when he couldn't apply a quick fix to a settings glitch on his steering wheel. The result was fifth place in a race where the Mercedes package was a class apart - and one step backwards in the title race after two giant leap forwards in Monaco and Montreal.
Rating out of ten: 6

Williams arrived in Baku with realistic ambitions of landing a podium finish but, unable to keep up with Ferrari and surprised by the unexpected competitiveness of Force India, Valtteri Bottas's sixth place was their best of a modest lot. And there wasn't much more Valtteri, back in form judging by his exploits in Canada, could have done about it after falling foul of traffic in qualifying and then finding out he had little to play with on race day.

"The predicted pace we should have wasn't there, this was all we could get today," he rued. All in all, an unexpected twist in their battle for fourth place with Force India in the Constructors' Championship.
Rating out of ten: 8

Much like Bottas, Daniel Ricciardo did as much as he could have done in the European GP as Red Bull's struggle to put their tyres into the correct operating window returned with a vengeance during the race. "After lap three we started to slide the rear and there was no way of controlling it," said Daniel afterwards. "I went from being very optimistic about our race to being uncertain."

A two-stop strategy amounted to a tactical roll of the dice in the hope that the Safety Car would be deployed, but strategy ultimately had little bearing on the team's poor result. All of which highlighted just how well Ricciardo performed in qualifying to take second on the grid - the Australian now leads Verstappen 4-0 on Saturdays. Impressive stuff.
Rating out of ten: 8

And conversely, Max Verstappen now trails his team-mate 4-0 in qualifying, a rare punctuation mark in the youngster's hitherto-seamless charge to the front of F1.

The Dutchman was on the periphery of proceedings at Baku but a late-race charge saw him close to within a second of Ricciardo when the chequered flag fell.
Rating out of ten: 7

There was a time when Nico Hulkenberg was considered the Next Big Thing in F1. But that must have felt like a lifetime ago as the German - still awaiting his first podium finish after over 100 race starts - watched his team-mate celebrate his seventh top-three finish.

In that context, Hulkenberg's ninth place, his punishment for spinning out in qualifying, was almost an irrelevance.
Rating out of ten: 6

Felipe Massa described his European GP as a "really terrible race" - and after going from fifth on the grid to 10th at the finish while his team-mate climbed from eighth to sixth, it's little wonder Felipe departed Baku on Sunday night trying to forget about his experience as quickly as possible. Rarely can Felipe have endured such a tough day at the office in 15 years of F1 racing.
Rating out of ten: 5

Even if it didn't deliver a tangible reward, Jenson Button's European GP was a job very well done as the McLaren driver clambered up from 19th on the grid to finish in 11th. "Really happy with what l did, I enjoyed some good fights," Jenson told Sky F1. Just a shame about the lack of any points to show for it, but beating six Mercedes-powered cars along with two Ferraris and two Red Bulls on an afternoon of unexpected durability was just too much to ask for.
Rating out of ten: 9

Felipe Nasr was feeling rather pleased with himself after qualifying. "We put everything together today to beat Renault and Manor, which is a good sign," he noted. But the Brazilian did even better on race day, claiming the scalp of both Haas cars as well as the Renaults, Manors and, most importantly of all, his team-mate. "I fought very hard from the beginning to the end," he said. It's tough to impress in a Sauber but Felipe nearly pulled off the impossible in Baku.
Rating out of ten: 9

Haas' early-season surprises are already a fading memory but at least there was signs of improvement as Romain Grosjean came home in 13th after qualifying 11th - their best Saturday result since Bahrain. But the Frenchman must be aware that he is in danger of falling behind Perez in the queue to fill any vacancy at Ferrari next year.
Rating out of ten: 7

Kevin Magnussen thought the European GP was a "good race in terms of what we got out of it" and given that he started from the pitlane and finished 14th despite far fewer retirements than expected, it was a reasonable appraisal. The Dane is in it for the long haul with the Enstone outfit - which is probably just as well given their lack of competitive pace at present.
Rating out of ten: 7

It's still not happening for Jolyon Palmer in F1. The rookie summed up his qualifying session as "rubbish" and his race wasn't much better. After flat-spotting his tyres at the start, Jolyon was forced to switch onto a two-stop strategy, enabling the one-stopping Magnussen to beat him to the line. Another tough weekend.
Rating out of ten: 5

It's fair to say that Esteban Gutierrez's F1 return isn't working out. 6-2 down to his team-mate in qualifying, he is still yet to score a point this season and was three places down on Grosjean at the conclusion of another difficult race for the Mexican this Sunday.
Rating out of ten: 5

As Ted Kravitz noted in his post-race Notebook, "this was a horrible weekend for Marcus Ericsson". Along with his all other two-stop strategy peers, the Swede went backwards through the race, ending up a distant 17th - five places behind his team-mate. Ouch.
Rating out of ten: 5

Is it time to reappraise Rio Haryanto's F1 credentials? They were widely doubted at the time of his appointment to a seat with Manor six months ago but he has now beaten Pascal Wehrlein, hailed as a future Mercedes driver, in three of this year's eight qualifying events. And when you are rock bottom on the grid, that yardstick of a driver's worth is the only tool available.
Rating out of ten: 7

Did not finish: Fernando Alonso, Pascal Wehrlein, Carlos Sainz, Daniil Kvyat

Don't miss the F1 Report: Baku review on Sky Sports F1 at 8.30pm on Wednesday with Natalie Pinkham, Marc Priestley and Mark Gallagher