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Spanish GP driver ratings

Who impressed, who did better than expected, and who suffered pain in Spain....

"The same approach" has been Nico Rosberg's mantra in response to the inevitable questions about just how he might tackle his team-mate's dominance. The Hamilton versus Rosberg battle can be boiled down to one of instinct v analysis and the latter won out this weekend: Nico got his set-up right - or righter than Lewis, who struggled with the balance of his W06 by comparison. But if Rosberg's approach is indeed the more methodical, it'll be interesting to see what effect the win will have on his confidence - that nebulous attribute that can make a far greater difference than a notch of front wing. It must have taken a bit of a battering in recent weeks; Rosberg needs to build on this success in the weeks to come. 
Rating out of ten: 9.5

Such has Lewis Hamilton's run of form over the last eight months that he can get away with calling a second-place finish "damage limitation" while keeping a straight face. Chasing a balanced set-up throughout the weekend, it finally came good for him in the race - but only after he was completely bogged down at the lights. As far as the world champion was concerned, any hopes of victory were gone there and then. The mandatory duff pit-stop followed but a three-stop strategy and the W06's pace was sufficient to get him back ahead of Vettel's Ferrari. It had to happen sooner or later.
Rating out of ten: 7

As for Sebastian Vettel, he really didn't do much wrong this weekend, finishing exactly where he did in Australia and China. But in Melbourne - where, we were all chuntering about the tedium of another Mercedes-centric season - the gap to race winner Hamilton was 34 seconds; in Barcelona, Vettel was a formidable 45 seconds behind Rosberg. The four-time champion did the job asked of him, but what does the result say about the upgraded SF15-T? 
Rating out of ten: 8

Valtteri Bottas: Suffering from back pain

After all the recent talk of Valtteri Bottas replacing Kimi Raikkonen at Ferrari in 2016, it was inevitable that the pair would meet on the track at some point over the weekend. That it was Bottas who ultimately prevailed with a faultless defensive performance in front of the hard-charging Kimi will only fuel speculation of a swap for next season. True, both Bottas and his manager have denied holding talks with Ferrari, but there's a lot of smoke wafting about and Valtteri has confirmed he is a free agent for 2016. A drive like this will only keep the rumour mill churning.
Rating out of ten: 8.5

Ferrari's Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen leaves the pits during the third practice session at the Circuit de

Mistakes in qualifying have hampered Kimi Raikkonen for every race so far this year and Barcelona was no different. He had the race pace, not least when he was running on the hard tyres at a relative faster rate than the medium-shod Sebastian Vettel, but Kimi's 2015 problem is that he is always playing catch-up. And if there is one circuit where you don't want to be playing catch-up, it's the Circuit de Catalunya - as demonstrated by Raikkonen's failure to overtake Bottas in the closing stages despite boasting far superior speed, a failure which also conclusively condemned his weekend to a negative result. 
Rating out of ten: 6

Felipe Massa and Will Stevens

Always on the back foot after a dismal qualifying hour, in which he was forced to use up a second set of medium tyres to guarantee progress out of Q2 before making a hash of his one timed lap in the shoot-out when he ran wide at Turn Three, Felipe Massa endured an instantly-forgettable weekend in Barcelona. Sixth was a respectable result but no more than that and arguably a little less. After a 12-points head-start in Australia, when injury meant Bottas sat out  the race, Massa already trails his team-mate in the World Championship standings again.
Rating out of ten: 6

More from 2015 F1 Driver Ratings

Daniel Ricciardo of Australia and Infiniti Red Bull Racing speaks with members of his team i

Even the famous smile of Daniel Ricciardo briefly vanished on Saturday in the wake of a result that the Aussie identified “as my worst qualifying since I started with the team”. From tenth on the grid, seventh at the chequered flag on Sunday amounted to a very creditable result - especially with team-mate Daniil Kvyat a further half a minute down the road. But hearing team boss Christian Horner describe the 2015 season as a "write-off" afterwards was a depressing context for Ricciardo's efforts.
Rating out of ten: 7.5

Romain Grosjean

Has there been, in modern times at least, a top-ten finish harder earned than Romain Grosjean's eighth place in Spain? After sitting out P1, he suffered an engine-cover blow-out at the start of P2, was handicapped by a broken fourth gear throughout he race, and also had the best seat in the house for the pitlane calamity which sent his front jackman spiralling. A lesser-composed driver, something which has not always been Romain's calling card, might have crumbled after that incident, but Romain kept his composure to such impressive effect that he promptly returned to the track and pulled off arguably the move of the day when he rounded Ricciardo. Hats off.
Rating out of ten: 7.5

Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz

It was a rollercoaster of a race for Carlos Sainz, who admitted after qualifying that fifth place would probably be as good as it got for him. So it proved - markedly so in the opening laps when the Spanish youngster was picked off at will and tumbled out of the points. Yet he managed to claw back a couple of positions at the end, the last being gained with a to-say-the-least bullish move on Kvyat on the final lap. With team-mate Max Verstappen finishing 11th, the less-hyped of the Toro Rosso pair now enjoys a narrow lead in the drivers' standings.
Rating out of ten: 8

It was another difficult race for Daniil Kvyat - a poor start, as the Russian said, spelling "game over" almost as soon as it had begun. One point is better than no points yet such is the speed of Red Bull's RB11 right now that its drivers hardly have much cause for optimism. Still, at least both cars finished on Sunday - but the feeling is that Kvyat will need all the resolve he can muster going forward.
Rating out of ten: 6

And the rest... 

Speaking on the grid, Max Verstappen said he felt confident because he always performed better in races than qualifying. His 11th place hardly backed that up but the feeling - at least during the early laps - was that he and Carlos Sainz were racing with one arm tied behind their backs. Less metaphorically, it seemed that the STR10 came particularly good in qualifying and then reverted to the unspectacular form it had shown during Friday practice.
Rating out of ten: 6

With the slow rate of development at Sauber, a consequence of the team's perilous financial straits, beginning to take its toll, Felipe Nasr was an unsually peripheral figure in Barcelona. He could have done no more, though, beating his team-mate in every session, reaching Q2 while the other Sauber of Marcus Ericsson took F1's version of an early bath. Neither drive shone in the race, but it was Nasr who once again finished ahead of the other, 12th to Ericsson's 14th.

One other intriguing aspect of Ericsson's weekend was his absence in P1 when Sauber reserve Raffaele Marciello drove alongside Nasr. That would seemingly indicate they either rate Nasr above Ericsson in their internal pecking order or that the Brazilian brings more valuable sponsorship (the reason why Grosjean sits out at Lotus whenever Palmer runs) - or perhaps a bit of both. In any case, Nasr is firmly establishing himself as Sauber's number one over the Swede.
Rating out of ten: 7.5 - Nasr, 6 - Ericsson

They finished 12th and 14th respectively on Sunday, and with Sergio Perez splitting them in 13th from 18th on the grid, logic suggests he had a better race than Nico Hulkenberg, who finished 15th from 17th. But it would be bordering on the churlish to pick at their performances this weekend, such has been Force India's (under) performance. 
Rating out of ten: 10 out of 10 to both of them (for stoicism)

Speaking of which, Jenson Button may well deserve a medal for finishing 16th in a McLaren-Honda he described as "scary" to drive. And it wasn't a home race to remember for Fernando Alonso either, with the Spaniard forced to retire after a catastrophic brake failure that would have resulted in a horrible incident in the pits but for the emergency avoiding-action of his front jack-man. 

It went from bad to worse for McLaren after the race when, by the sounds of it, racing director Eric Boullier managed to swallow Ron Dennis' favourite thesaurus. "It’s superfluous to state that this afternoon has been a more than somewhat disappointing one," he said, before describing Alonso's exit as "irksome", Button's afternoon as "vexatious" and stating that they'd be "more sanguine if progress could be made more expeditiously". Eh? Next up is the "famously serpentine tarmac" of Monaco, although by the sounds of it Button isn't expecting much more there.
Rating out of ten: Button 10 (for sticking with it) Alonso N/A

Five races, four retirements. 2015 just isn't working out for Pastor Maldonado. The puzzling collapse of his rear-wing spelt the end of the Venezuelan's hopes of achieving his first points-scoring result of the campaign and his latest early bath wasn't far behind. Just to compound what was a weekend without consolation for Pastor, he was also out-paced by GP2 champion Jolyon Palmer in Friday morning practice as well. Ouch.
Rating out of ten: N/A

With the Manor car in excess of five seconds off the pace, the chances of Will Stevens, the rarely-spotted third Englishman on the grid, impressing are meagre at best. But the near-rookie continues to do a highly competent job at the back of the grid and has led Robert Merhi in every event so far. The Spaniard's one-second deficit to his team-mate in qualifying was, however, in part a result of the second Manor being restricted to just a single flying lap. The less said about the 20-second gap between the two Manors in the race the better, however.
Rating out of ten: 7 - Stevens, 4 - Merhi

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