Our judges handed down their verdict after Max Verstappen’s victory in the Canadian Grand Prix. He made the top ten – but who else was impressed? Here are the grades from Montreal.
How it works
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A panel of five judges evaluates each driver after each Grand Prix and scores them out of 10 according to their performance over the weekend – taking machines out of the equation.
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Our experts’ scores are then averaged to produce the race score – with these scores then tallied over the course of the season in the overall strength rankings leaderboard (at the bottom of the page)
Verstappen put in a fine display – well, more than great – from pole position to winning the Canadian Grand Prix. The Dutchman perfected the wet conditions on Saturday, qualifying more than six-tenths of driver Tally Alonso, and driving more than 50 laps en route to his first win in Montreal. No wonder our referees were so impressed, and so was the Red Bull team manager…
Read more: Verstappen ‘in the form of his life’ says Horner after Montreal ‘masterclass’
Hamilton finished second in the power ratings after finishing third in the race. The seven-time champion qualified impressively behind Sainz and finished third after Perez retired. The judges also gave the podium-ranked Mercedes a slightly higher score than runner-up Ferrari. However, team boss Wolff swore not to get carried away in finishing Hamilton in P3…
Sainz was impressive on Sunday. Yes, he was qualified by Alonso and nine tenths behind Verstappen on Saturday, but the Ferrari driver made no mistake on race day and gave everything to suck the lead off Verstappen. Those efforts were in vain but Sainz still impresses our judges and finished third in this week’s standings.
Another great performance from rookie Zhou this weekend. The Alfa Romeo driver arrived in Q3 with a P10 in qualifying – ahead of his teammate Bottas – and made two places in the race. Cho finished behind Bottas on Sunday, and the Finn benefited from the safety car, but secured a notch higher in the power ratings this week.
Beyond the grid: Zhou Guanyu races his champs as F1’s first full-time Chinese driver
Top five again for Russell, the Mercedes driver after he maintained his streak with the P4 at the finish line in Canada. However, Russell was a mediocre P8 in qualifying, taking off because a gamble to take slick tires didn’t pay off in the rain. A late stop prevented Russell from challenging for last place on the podium but the judges scored it high.
Alonso’s P2 in qualifying had an alpine dream but the two-time champion couldn’t quite keep up on Sunday, falling behind the faster cars and then losing because he was out of sync with Virtual Safety Cars. Five-second penalty taken off Alonso From the seventh to the ninth in the schedules But it held fifth place in this week’s rankings.
Bottas couldn’t make it into the third quarter on Saturday, but starting in 11th on the grid he started in the hardshells, a long first job helping him stop behind the safety car and jump on teammate Zhou fpr P7. It also finished seventh in this week’s rankings, and Sunday’s pace offset a somewhat disappointing Saturday.
READ MORE: Chu ‘very happy’ to finish P8 in Montreal, as Bottas praises rookie performance
The looming specter of grid penalties meant that Leclerc sat in the second quarter of Saturday and we couldn’t see what the Ferrari driver was capable of in the rest of qualifying. On Sunday, he lost time in the pits and behind the Alpine Ocon but managed to recover for fifth Today’s driver honors And eighth in our strength rankings.
TECH TUESDAY: Why Leclerc’s Slimline in Montreal wasn’t just helping him make headway from behind
Not quite up to the P2 qualifier Alonso, Ocon still claimed a P7 on the grid and finished one position better on Sunday. The Frenchman finished behind Leclerc, after holding him for several laps, but beat Alonso to P6 thanks to a stop under the safety car. He kept Bottas at bay for a few seconds to get more useful points for Albin, after Alonso netted a penalty after the race.
In the last finish on Sunday, Magnussen achieved an amazing P5 qualification in the wet on Saturday. The Haas driver dueled Hamilton on lap 1 and damaged his front wing, ordered back into the pit for a slow nose change, unable to make it from the back of the pack. Perhaps the Danish judges considered it a pity, and they were certainly impressed with his qualifying performance, putting him in the top ten this week.
READ MORE: Haas drivers regret tough Canadian GP as team’s lowest point streak extends to five races
Lost
Magnussen’s teammate Mick Schumacher got exactly the same result in Canada. The German qualified sixth on Saturday, but Sunday ended early due to a mechanical problem. Lando Norris was the next driver in our power ratings, finishing just a short distance from Schumacher.
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