Brazilian GP 2016 driver ratings

A gentleman and a champion, Lewis Hamilton is finishing 2016 in style and scintillating form. The odds remain stacked against Lewis retaining his title even after his third win on the bounce and a wheel-perfect performance in Brazil that was at once both brilliant and easy.

While chaos descended behind him, Hamilton's class shone bright at the front as he led from start to finish in faultless fashion. "There were no mistakes, no issues, no spins," Lewis simply reported afterwards. Hamilton was in such control he even found the opportunity to watch replays of his rivals' various mishaps on the big screen while cruising around in conditions that caught just about every other driver in the field.

Hamilton takes title race to the wire

While the standings still point to Rosberg being crowned champion, the sheer magnitude of Hamilton's pace advantage over his team-mate in Brazil is worth dwelling upon.

Between laps seven, when the race properly started, and lap 13, when the Safety Car was first deployed, Hamilton had built up a 6.193 second lead over Rosberg.

Between the second restart on lap 31 and lap 49, when Massa crashed to trigger another stoppage, Hamilton had cruised 23.884 seconds clear of the second Mercedes.

And when they reached the chequered flag on lap 71 after the race got going again on lap 55, Hamilton was already 11.4 seconds ahead of his team-mate.

Let's just consider those numbers.

In total, Hamilton's various leads over Rosberg amounted to over 40 seconds. In just 33 or so laps of proper racing. Over the world championship leader in identical machinery.

Phenomenal.
Rating out of ten: 10

Another bullet dodged for Nico Rosberg? The Mercedes driver remains in pole position to win the drivers' title after finishing in second place at Interlagos, a result which owed plenty to his smart 'save' when his W07 half-spun at the top of the hill but an even larger debt to the failings of Red Bull's pitwall strategists.

Hamilton rues Rosberg's 'unbelievable' luck

Had Sunday's results been based purely on pace and performance, Rosberg may have only finished fifth. "Unbelievable" was Hamilton's succinct assessment of his team-mate's good fortune.
Rating out of ten: 6

What a talent, what a performance, what a comeback. Max Verstappen is the stuff that F1's dreams are made of.

If the move around the outside of Rosberg's Mercedes for second place was brilliant, the teenager's sensational charge to finish from 15th to third in just over ten laps was bordering on genius. Christian Horner thought it was "one of the best drives I've ever seen in F1".

'Brazil GP was the Verstappen show'

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The rest of the paddock simply went for an accolade just as lavish: Sennaesque. "Physics are being redefined," eulogised Mercedes boss Toto Wolff.

And to think Red Bull's decision to promote the youngster six months ago was subject to debate at the time...
Rating out of ten: 10

From ninth on the grid, Sergio Perez produced a solid, if unspectacular race, staying out of trouble on a difficult day and only narrowly missed out on a podium finish.

He was out-qualified again by a rejuvenated Nico Hulkenberg in the other Force India and single-lap pace is an area the Mexican will have to work on, even if the gap was only six hundredths of a second.

He was also running behind Hulkenberg in the race until the German was forced to pit with a puncture.

Yet, by avoiding the drama, Perez found himself running third with three laps to go, only missing out on a podium due to a late charging Verstappen.
Rating out of ten: 7

The words 'missed' and 'opportunity' have been so entwined with Ferrari's season that they might as well be painted on the side of their car. Brazil was yet another case of that, and for Sebastian Vettel in particular.

The German eventually finished where he qualified - fifth - but to be beaten by Perez's Force India and nearly Carlos Sainz in the Toro Rosso owed everything to the lap-10 spin at the final corner when Vettel was lucky not to aquaplane into deeper trouble. In fairness, he wasn't the only high-profile driver to make a mistake on that treacherous section and his recovery from 19th was rather more textbook, even if old foe Fernando Alonso wasn't happy.

Mistakes in the final corner in the dry had cost Vettel in qualifying to team-mate Kimi Raikkonen again, but while their Saturday head-to-head is now tied at 10-10, the Finn's crash on the start-finish straight means the German driver is now all-but assured to finish the season ahead on points. Bring on the winter.
Rating out of ten: 6

Carlos Sainz came through the pack to pick up sixth place from 15th of the grid and the honour of joint 'Star of the Day' alongside Verstappen from Sky F1's Ted Kravitz.

Unusually the Spaniard was out-qualified by team-mate Daniil Kvyat, with the Russian two tenths ahead - a figure made all the more substantial given how short the lap is in Brazil.

The disadvantage of the year old Ferrari unit was somewhat negated by Sunday's wet conditions, and Sainz was running as high as fourth with five laps to go before being overhauled by Verstappen and Vettel. With Kvyat only 13th at the flag, albeit having been hit by Jolyon Palmer, it underlined how impressive a race it was from Sainz.
Rating out of ten: 9

Just when will Nico Hulkenberg catch a podium break? Running fourth at the time of the first red flag, Hulkenberg thought he had already dodged one Raikkonen-triggered bullet when he drove through the debris of the crashed Ferrari in front of him, only to pick up a puncture on the first lap back out of the pits running through what remained on the Scuderia's carbon-fibre shards. How's your luck?

An emergency pitstop for fresh tyres dropped him to 15th so it was a fine recovery thereafter to salvage seventh, with the added kudos of keeping Daniel Ricciardo's marauding Red Bull behind in the closing laps.
Rating out of ten: 8

Daniel Ricciardo was massively overshadowed by his team-mate Verstappen in Brazil, with the Dutch driver out-qualifying and then out-performing him in the race.

There might not have been much between the two Red Bulls in qualifying, just five hundredths of a second, but in F1 small margins matter and Vettel slotted his Ferrari into that gap.

And while Ricciardo showed some pace in the rain and produced a number of overtakes, he was actually running ahead of Verstappen when the pair made their final stops to go back onto full wet tyres. But while Verstappen stole the headlines by storming through to take third, Ricciardo could only finish eighth.
Rating out of ten: 6

There was a straightforward simplicity underpinning Felipe Nasr's route to ninth place and a result which is likely to reap Sauber around $30m in end-of-year prizemoney. From start to finish, the Brazilian ran on wet tyres, only changing rubber during the two red-flag stoppages, and successfully kept himself out of trouble. But the impression of simplicity is also to underscore how impressive - "exceptional", according to his team boss - Felipe's drive was.

Make no mistake, and he didn't, Nasr was under immense pressure throughout as he strived to deliver a result which could be absolutely critical for Sauber's future. And he would have burdened that pressure throughout the afternoon having climbed into the top 10 as early as lap 10. To have stayed there, with so little fuss in such difficult conditions, was a performance that mustn't be underrated.
Rating out of ten: 8

Remember the spin Fernando Alonso took towards the end of the Brazilian GP? It occurred on lap 56. In the fifteen laps that followed Alonso made seven overtakes to reach the top ten. Perhaps more saliently, his overtakes included a move past Jenson Button and by the chequered flag he was 37 seconds ahead of his team-mate.

Yes, 37 seconds in 15 laps. Over a former world champion. What a talent - and what a waste when he is so far from the front. 
Rating out of ten: 8

The nosedive in temperatures from Saturday onwards scuppered what could have been a strong weekend for Williams and, despite finishing Sunday's rain-hit epic, Valtteri Bottas missed out on the final point by a whisker to Alonso.

Once again the fastest Williams driver all weekend, despite Felipe Massa's ingrained Interlagos knowhow, Bottas missed out on Q3 by a scant 0.06s and then in the race, try as the team might, they just couldn't make an intermediate-tyre strategy pay dividends. Despite passing Kvyat and Ocon in the closing stages, Bottas ran out of time to make the top 10 as the team's hopes of fourth in the standings all-but ended.
Rating out of ten: 7

So near and yet so far for Esteban Ocon. After an age-defying drive of accomplished maturity, the youngster fell off the track in the closing stages and down the field as he tried in vain to catch Nasr. "I'm really disappointed and sad for all of us," he lamented afterwards.

Tenth wouldn't have been enough to prevent Sauber leapfrogging Manor in the standings but it would have marked Esteban's first points-scoring result in F1. "There are so many reasons to feel disappointed today but, yes, my first F1 point would have been nice."
Rating out of ten: 7

While he was plugging away to the end, Daniil Kvyat's Brazilian GP was effectively over the moment the Toro Rosso came together with Palmer's Renault in the noisy gloom of Interlagos pitstraight following the first red flag.

According to Toro Rosso, the damage sustained cost the STR11 20 points of downforce - not something you want to be without in the toughest driving conditions of the season where there are potential hazards lurking around almost every corner. Kvyat came home 13th but, given he had outqualified Sainz, he must have been looking on the Spaniard's eye-catching sixth place with some justifiable envy.
Rating out of ten: 6

In a Renault lacking downforce there wasn't a lot Kevin Magnussen could do in Sunday's wet conditions. He at least kept the car out of the barriers and reached the chequered flag, but none of the tyre strategy calls paid off for the Dane during the race.

Magnussen was also a disappointing tenth and a half slower than Palmer in qualifying which meant the Briton progressed to Q2, while the Dane went out in Q1. The move to Haas can't come soon enough it seems for K-Mag.
Rating out of ten: 6

Pascal Wehrlein was very much in his team-mate's shadow on race day despite being faster in qualifying. Saturday was dry, of course, and after fading away in the race it certainly sounds as if the young German is no fan of driving in the wet, telling Manor's own press release: "It was a very nerve-wracking race with conditions I'm not keen to experience again anytime soon." 
Rating out of ten: 5

The less said about Jenson Button's Brazilian weekend the better. Qualifying was bad enough: the Englishman didn't even make it through Q3 while his team-mate reached the top ten. But race day was even worse. Unable to find any grip or pace, the former world champion finished rank last - and utterly mystified. "Finishing last is unusual for me in conditions like these so there's definitely something wrong. I don't think I've forgotten how to drive in the wet." If this is the end for JB, it's a sad way to bow out.
Rating out of ten: 5

Did not finish: Esteban Gutierrez, Felipe Massa, Jolyon Palmer, Kimi Raikkonen, Marcus Ericsson, Romain Grosjean

Don't miss the F1 Report's Brazilian GP review on Sky Sports F1 on Wednesday at 8.30pm