French GP driver ratings
Hamilton, Sainz and Norris steal the Paul Ricard show...
Wednesday 26 June 2019 09:38, UK
Lewis Hamilton
Qualified 1st, Finished 1st
What else can you say about Lewis Hamilton? When the real business end of a weekend arrives - Q3 and then the race itself - Hamilton invariably hits his stride and, at Paul Ricard, his performance was as impressive as anything seen so far this season.
He won pole by nearly three tenths and then, having converted that starting advantage into an immediate lead on Sunday, he steadily pulled away from Bottas in the first stint, before stretching his lead in the second as the sister car preserved its tyres.
History shows that the combination of best team and best driver, with margins of advantage in both regards, are very difficult to live with - and that's the situation the rest of the F1 field are faced with right now. At this rate, Hamilton will be on the brink of Michael's Schumacher's once-untouchable wins record by the end of this season. Now that is quite something.
Rating out of 10: 9.5
Valtteri Bottas
Qualified 2nd, Finished 2nd
If he didn't already know, Valtteri Bottas is finding out all about how tough it is to beat Lewis Hamilton over an entire F1 season. Only Nico Rosberg and Jenson Button have managed it before - once apiece - and Hamilton, seemingly still getting better all the time into his mid-30s, is operating on an even higher plane now.
Paul Ricard was still a decent weekend for Bottas in a sense that he looked the man to beat in practice and finished second in the race, but then Hamilton stepped up a gear when it really mattered. Does Bottas 2.0 need to go to 3.0?
Rating out of 10: 7.5
Charles Leclerc
Qualified 3rd, Finished 3rd
A strong performance from Charles Leclerc, who was pretty faultless through the weekend to comfortably get the better of Sebastian Vettel.
Finishing on Bottas' tail was certainly a commendable achievement given Ferrari's deficit to Mercedes, and Leclerc never really looked under threat of losing that third-place position from behind. He could not really do anymore.
Rating out of 10: 8.5
Max Verstappen
Qualified 4th, Finished 4th
It remains hard to pick fault with any aspect of Max Verstappen's season, with the Dutchman finishing inside the top four for the seventh time in eight attempts (the other race, Canada, he was fifth).
Once he had fended off the fast-starting Carlos Sainz mid-way round the first lap, and settled in behind Leclerc, Verstappen drove a controlled race in what was the third-fastest car. Despite a brief flicker of a threat from Vettel, Max then saw the quicker Ferrari off with room to spare too.
Rating out of 10: 8
Sebastian Vettel
Qualified 7th, Finished 5th
Sebastian Vettel drove a decent enough race in the south of France sunshine but the damage was done on Saturday when a troubled and unbalanced Q3 left him back on the third row behind the McLarens. After losing the win in Canada - a victory that stayed lost following Ferrari's meeting with the same stewards in France - Vettel suggested post-race that Ferrari had "failed" in their target at Paul Ricard given a large gap to Mercedes remained, despite the latest upgrade trials.
Ferrari have bigger problems to solve than Vettel's form, but the German will want to be back on Canada pace in Austria.
Rating out of 10: 6
Carlos Sainz
Qualified 7th, Finished 6th
On a superb weekend for McLaren, Carlos Sainz ultimately took the spoils as far as their higher race finish went with an expert and well-managed drive to sixth.
The Spaniard, growing into his new life at Woking very nicely, got ahead of Lando Norris at the start, nearly overtook Verstappen, and controlled his pace and tyres well from there. He described it as "of those days where everything comes together and produces the maximum result available". Quite right.
Rating out of 10: 9.5
Kimi Raikkonen
Qualified 12th, Finished 7th
Welcome back Alfa Romeo. After a few races in which their season appeared on the slide, Kimi Raikkonen produced one of the underrated drives of the day to take what became seventh after Daniel Ricciardo's double-whammy time penalty. While it was his team-mate who made Q3, Raikkonen's 12th and ability to start on the hard tyres ultimately proved more advantageous and he kept Hulkenberg at bay all race, before ultimately coming out the winner - via the stewards - as Norris and Ricciardo's battle opened up that crazy final lap.
Rating out of 10: 8
Nico Hulkenberg
Qualified 13th, Finished 8th
He wasn't the fastest Renault driver at the team's home race, but his team-mate's penalty promoted Nico Hulkenberg to eighth to cap a strong Sunday for the German driver. "We've demonstrated that our race pace is there, but we have something to find on one-lap pace," remarked Nico, who hasn't outqualified Ricciardo since Australia now. He had the box seat to the Norris-Ricciardo-Raikkonen shenanigans unfold and very nearly managed to take complete advantage down the back straight to get ahead of all three.
Rating out of 10: 7
Lando Norris
Qualified 5th, Finished 9th
In many ways the star of the weekend, and the fans' drivers of the day, Lando Norris continues to enjoy a very fine rookie F1 season. While not completely happy with his qualifying lap - as revealed and explained in his fascinating post-qualifying visit to the SkyPad above - fifth place ahead of Sainz by just over a tenth was a fine achievement. The Spaniard made the better start but Norris remained on his team-mate's tail for the race, until those unfortunate late hydraulic battles made the final laps quite the challenge.
Rating out of 10: 9
Pierre Gasly
Qualified 9th, Finished 10th
Whichever way you look at it, this was not a good weekend for Pierre Gasly. Only taking a point after Ricciardo post-race time penalties, the Frenchman struggled for grip throughout, qualified ninth, and then his race fell apart after what had looked a promising opening stint on the brittle soft tyres. Overtaken immediately by Ricciardo despite a speedy Red Bull service getting him ahead at the stops, Gasly was certainly fortunate to take that final point having crossed the line 11th. Next up, Red Bull's home race...
Rating out of 10: 5
Outside the points
From joy to despair for Daniel Ricciardo. The Australian has really starred in recent races and he dragged his Renault - off the pace compared to McLaren - to just behind Lando Norris in the battle for seventh at his team's home race. But so desperate was Ricciardo for some more points, he crossed the line - quite literally - and couldn't have too many complaints with his double penalty. And that, cruelly, pushed him outside of the top-10 entirely.
"No regrets," he tweeted after the race. "I tried. Would rather that than sit back without a heart." Still, he continues to dominate well-respected team-mate Nico Hulkenberg in qualifying - he's now 7-1 up for the season.
Rating out of 10: 7.5
Left perplexed at his bosses by the penalty for gaining positions by running off track at the start, despite going around the bollard as mandated, Sergio Perez finished as many seconds away from a point as his sanction lost him - five. A point or two would have been a decent save for Racing Point, with their qualifying pace in particular leaving them with work to do right now.
Rating out of 10: 7
Lance Stroll has really established himself as a solid racer during his three years in Formula 1 and his surge from 17th to 13th on Sunday was more evidence of that, finishing just behind his team-mate in the end. But boy, does he need to improve in qualifying. He lost 17-2 to Felipe Massa in 2017, 12-8 to Sergey Sirotkin in 2018 and is currently 8-0 down this year. This was the 12th qualifying in a row where he failed to get out of Q1.
Rating out of 10: 6
Daniil Kvyat and Alex Albon's battles for position was one of the more entertaining scraps in the race and it was eventually Kvyat - despite starting from 19th after engine penalties - who came out on top. It's difficult to gauge just how much Kvyat has improved this season, but he has handled his highly-rated young team-mate rather well so far in 2019. Are you watching, Red Bull?
Rating out of 10: 6.5
Saturday was better than Sunday for Alex Albon, who really did well to just finish a whisker outside the Q3 positions despite being the only Red Bull-Toro Rosso driver not to be running Honda's new engine. Sunday, sadly, didn't follow suit: he lost out at the start, boxed in at Turn Two, and then lost out to Kvyat.
Rating out of 10: 6
Maybe it wasn't so good to outqualify his team-mate after all. Making the top 10, but starting on the soft tyres, really didn't work out for Antonio Giovinazzi who pitted after just seven laps. Unfair, perhaps, but 'them's the rules', and the Italian's wait for that maiden F1 point continues.
Rating out of 10: 6
Even qualifying could not offer Haas a glimmer of hope this time. While Kevin Magnussen beat his struggling team-mate, he could only manage 15th on the grid with the team on the back foot all weekend. Magnussen eventually finished 17th in the race and admitted: "We were a bit helpless." Only Williams have been slower on Sundays this season.
Rating out of 10: 6
So it's a first Sunday 'victory' for Robert Kubica for Williams, although George Russell was again the faster driver here. Still, Robert appeared reasonably happy with the car and enjoyed his wheel-to-wheel tussles with the Brit. "The battle with George was good experience for when the car gets quicker, which will hopefully pay off in the future," said the Pole.
Rating out of 10: 6
George Russell finished behind Robert Kubica for the first time this season on Sunday but that was only because if a late pit-stop for safety reasons. If you want to see a cracking overtake, check out Russell's on Kubica's high-speed pass around the outside of Signes.
Rating out of 10: 6.5
Did Not Finish
And Romain Grosjean thought his home race last year was bad. No grip, no balance, and no finish for the Frenchman, with the team making the call to retire with nine laps to go with Grosjean running where he qualified - 16th.
Rating out of ten: 5
The whole Austrian GP weekend is live only on Sky Sports F1. Sunday's race begins at 2.10pm with build-up from 12.30pm. Find out more about Formula 1 on Sky Sports
