Russian GP driver ratings

Welcome to the big time, Valtteri Bottas. Brilliant in qualifying, even better on race day, the Finn won the Russian GP the hard way with a four-time world champion harassing him all the way to the line - which only made his victory all the more special, all the more important and all the more significant.

Make no mistake, after two successive qualifying defeats of his illustrious team-mate and just ten points between them in the championship even when Valtteri continues to acclimatise to his new surrounds, there is a new title contender in town.

And judging by Sochi, he'll take some beating for both Lewis and Seb.
Rating out of ten: 9.5

Nearly but not quite for Sebastian Vettel, who nonetheless increased his championship lead to 13 points with his fourth 2017 podium in succession. Bottas's bolt-from-the-blue start ultimately proved the race's decisive moment, with the lead Ferrari's late charge on supersofts after the second-longest opening stint just falling short.

His late Saturday charge to pole at the expense of team-mate Kimi Raikkonen was reminiscent of the all-conquering 2010-13-spec Vettel and the German is showing few if any signs of fallibility at the moment. The bookies' title favourite and undoubtedly F1 2017's most consistent performer.
Rating out of ten: 9

A return to form of sorts for Kimi Raikkonen, who really needed to register his first podium finish for nine months in Sochi. But there were undoubted missed opportunities too.

He was disappointed not to take pole ahead of Vettel after failing to improve on his final Q3 run, while an average start cost him one place ahead of gaining one.

Sadly, while the Finn's race pace was memorable, his brief radio confusion about how Bottas was ahead of him probably went down as his race's most memorable moment.
Rating out of ten: 7.5

"One of those weekends" was how Lewis Hamilton described his Russian GP as early as Saturday night and, despite hope his W08 might suddenly spring into more balanced life in the race, it was simply more of the same on Sunday.

It turned into a relatively lonely 52 laps for a driver who had all-but owned the Sochi Autodrom since its arrival on the calendar.

Hamilton unable to explain Russia slump

Discounting his engine blow-up while leading in Malaysia last October, Hamilton had finished his previous 15 races on the podium, so trailing home fourth and 36 seconds behind his race-winning team-mate was, by his standards, somewhat underwhelming.

Thirteen points behind Vettel is not a particular cause for concern at this early stage of the season, but Hamilton will hope his muted showing in Russia proves a quickly-forgotten blip.
Rating out of ten: 6

Never before has Max Verstappen been as anonymous as he was in Russia this weekend. Fifth was as much as could have been achieved and far more than seemed possible when he was reduced to just seventh in qualifying by Felipe Massa and team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.

Sunday was better but the end result was also hugely flattering result: in a sport where every second counts, Verstappen was a minute behind the race winner when he reached the chequered flag. That new car for Spain can't come quickly enough - and needs to find a lot of new speed.
Rating out of ten: 7

A 14th consecutive finish in the points for F1's Mr Consistency, Sergio Perez. We've asked before and we'll ask it again: did McLaren ditch him far too prematurely?

It's a close battle at Force India and one which both drivers are winning: the newcomer for keeping it so close, Sergio for always just about keeping his nose in front.
Rating out of ten: 8

Four races for Force India, four finishes in the points. Esteban Ocon is the boy who keeps on doing good. And he's getting better too: after three tenth-place finishes in 2017's three openers, seventh in Sochi is his new best result in F1.
Rating out of ten: 7

It's no surprise, but what a good signing Nico Hulkenberg is proving to be for Renault - and, in time, what a good move it may prove to be for Nico.

Their teamwork in Russia was pretty smart too: after a slow, positions-losing start, the German ran an extra-long first stint to recover lost ground and ended up finishing where he started: a creditable eighth. The significance here for Renault was that it was the first time they have had any joy with the 2017 Pirellis - albeit on a circuit with a billiard-table surface.
Rating out of ten: 8.5

A cruel finish to an impressive weekend for Felipe Massa, who would have finished sixth but for a slow puncture 11 laps from home which triggered an unplanned second pit stop. Splitting the Red Bulls in qualifying was probably just about the maximum he could have achieved, and he held a comfortable advantage over Perez in the race before the unexpected tyre change dropped him to ninth.

For a driver who looked to have got his retirement timing just about right at the end of last year, the newly-turned 36-year-old appears relaxed and revitalised - and proving the experienced team leader Williams need while Lance Stroll continues to find his feet.
Rating out of ten: 8.5

After a rare error of judgement coming out of the pit lane in Bahrain, Carlos Sainz was back to his reliable best in Sochi, overcoming a grid penalty to finish 10th from 14th.

Gaining two places on lap one, the Toro Rosso driver ran a 24-lap opening stint to move into the points places and then held 10th all the way to the flag. Uneventful? Yes, but after the last race that wasn't an altogether bad thing.
Rating out of ten: 8

Finally a race finish for F1 2017's youngest driver but the Russian GP was still a case of what might have been for Lance Stroll. After taking time to get to grips with the Sochi layout, the Canadian started 11th and was making good early ground on the first lap before a small but costly spin dropped him to the back.

A commendable fightback followed, but Sainz just proved out of reach in Stroll's attempt to gain a maiden F1 point. But seeing the chequered flag for the first time still represented an important early career milestone heading towards Europe.
Rating out of ten: 7

No 2016-style home race doom and gloom for Daniil Kvyat this year, but a point-less 12th place finish won't live long in the memory either.

The Renault-powered STR12 wasn't the easiest to handle around Sochi's stop-start, power-centric layout and Toro Rosso are now looking for more when upgrades arrive for Barcelona.
Rating out of ten: 6

With team-mate Romain Grosjean out by turn two, it was looking rosier for Haas team-mate Kevin Magnussen when the Dane ran 10th in the early stages. But a disputed five-second time penalty for running off the circuit put paid to hopes of a point and he slipped down the midfield order to 13th, where he qualified.

"The weekend ended how it started - badly," was how team boss Guenther Steiner summed up Haas's race.
Rating out of ten: 6

Let's start with the good news: Stoffel Vandoorne made it to the finish line ahead of the two Saubers.

Now for the bad news: there was no other good news on another weekend from hell for McLaren.
Rating out of ten: 5

Both Saubers drivers struggled all weekend to find a decent working range for their tyres but it was Marcus Ericsson who managed to cope marginally better, finishing ahead of his team-mate in both qualifying and the race.

"Once again, he proved his strength and didn't give up in difficult moments - it shows, that Marcus is an important support for the team," said team boss Monisha Kaltenborn.
Rating out of ten: 6

Off the pace, behind Ericsson and uncomfortable in the car, Pascal Wehrlein's weekend in Sochi was the weekend he was expected to have when, after missing the opening two races, he belatedly debuted in Bahrain. The Mercedes loanee was unable to offer any reasons why afterwards but he can cling on to his display in Bahrain as reassurance.
Rating out of ten: 5

Red Bull's long-trailed Barcelona update can't come soon enough for Daniel Ricciardo, whose hopes of at least claiming the fifth place that was only realistically open to the team in Sochi went up in brake smoke within a frustratingly short five laps.

2017 wasn't supposed to be like this for many pundits' star of 2016.
Rating out of ten: 6

A horrible weekend for Jolyon Palmer in which he completed fewer than half-a-dozen laps all weekend: none at all in Practice Three, a couple in Q3 before crashing out, and then less than one on race day following his collision with Romain Grosjean. As Sky F1's Martin Brundle put it in commentary: "These are dark days for Jolyon". It can only get better in Spain.
Rating out of ten: 4

While Renault attributed Romain Grosjean's crash with Palmer's to an 'over-ambitious' move by their former driver, the stewards accepted it was just one of those things that happen at the start of races. In truth, there was little prospect of either driver finishing the race with any points.
Rating out of ten: 5

"Every weekend is the same," summarised a frustrated Fernando Alonso before leaving Sochi. Alas, it was actually worse than that: while this was the fourth successive race which he had failed to finish this year, Sochi marked a new low with the Spaniard retiring even before the race had started due to yet another Honda failure.
Rating out of ten: 6

Don't miss all the reaction from Sochi and tune in for the F1 Report: Russian GP Review on Sky Sports F1 on Wednesday night at 8.30pm