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The Brazilian Grand Prix weekend was already a tricky enough by virtue of the sprint format before persistent rain and the re-jigged schedule turned it into a shower of errors for many of Formula 1's regulars.
The calibre of F1 drivers on the grid right now is high, but given the Sunday conditions, it is unsurprising a big chunk of this analysis ended up about determining the 'least worst' rather than the best.
But no such qualifier needs to be used for the excellent performances at the top end of the rankings.
How do the rankings work? The 20 drivers will be ranked in order of performance from best to worst on each grand prix weekend. This will be based on the full range of criteria, ranging from pace and racecraft to consistency and whether they made key mistakes. How close each driver got to delivering on the maximum performance potential of the car will be an essential consideration.
It’s important to note both that this reflects performance across the entire weekend, cognisant of the fact that qualifying is effectively ‘lap 0’ of the race and key to laying the foundations to the race, and that it is not a ranking of the all-round qualities of each driver. It’s simply about how they performed on a given weekend. Therefore, the ranking will fluctuate significantly from weekend to weekend.
And with each of the 10 cars fundamentally having different performance potential and ‘luck’ (ie factors outside of a driver’s control) contributing to the way the weekend plays out, this ranking will also differ significantly from the overall results.
Started: 17th Finished: 1st
Other than the clumsy VSC delta error in the sprint, which turned third place at the flag into fourth, this was an outstanding weekend for Verstappen.
Yes, the red flag played in his favour in the race, but a stoppage went against him in qualifying and left him down the grid.
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The early laps were key to a superb victory, with some great passes along the way on a day when most found passing difficult.
Verdict: A weekend worthy of (almost) clinching a title.
Started: 2nd Finished: 4th
While his team-mate floundered, Russell excelled in the tricky Mercedes. After a decent run to sixth in the sprint, he grabbed second on the grid for the grand prix and led the first stint. Although he briefly fell behind Norris, he was handed that place back and took fourth.
Without the red flag - or if the team had heeded his call to stay out because of the worsening conditions - he’d surely have finished on the podium and would have had a shot at victory.
He slips in ahead of the two Alpines because there wasn’t a bad session and his all-round execution was excellent.
Verdict: Deserved a podium, at least.
Started: 13th Finished: 3rd
Why Gasly above Ocon? It was a close call but Gasly gets the nod for two reasons.
Firstly, he was quick in the dry sprint component of the weekend, dealing better with the corner-entry instability and mid-corner understeer that limited Ocon. Second, he was fast in the wet but suffered an identical fate to Verstappen in Q2, with both not able to set a proper time on their first push laps after the Sainz red flag after Ocon passed them at the end of the outlap, then being frustrated by the stoppage Stroll caused.
He executed the race well, jumping to ninth at the start and picking off Alonso later in the stint, then capitalising on the red flag to climb to third.
Verdict: Rapid, whatever the conditions.
Started: 4th Finished: 2nd
The only asterisk against Ocon’s weekend was his struggle in dry conditions, making for an anonymous sprint. But in the wet, he was transformed - as he usually is in such conditions.
He excelled in qualifying, ran fourth in the first stint before making an incisive pass on Tsunoda shortly before the VSC, then jumped to the lead by staying out.
He even pulled a gap on Verstappen after the restart, but another safety car meant he was almost inevitably passed by the Red Bull driver. But he didn’t put a foot wrong on his way to second.
Verdict: Stunning in the wet, shakier in the dry.
Started: 3rd Finished: 7th
Struggled for grip in dry conditions, meaning he was anonymous in the sprint part of the weekend. However, in wet conditions he did a superb job to qualify a career-best third. He ran there in the first stint before being passed by Ocon, then he called to pit for wets - the right call for the conditions but wrong given the stoppage that followed - just as the VSC ended, meaning he was shuffled back to sixth.
That became eighth when he dropped behind Leclerc and Piastri on the restart lap, and then seventh at the chequered flag when Piastri’s time penalty was applied.
Verdict: Could easily have been on the podium.
Started: 6th Finished: 5th
This was a difficult weekend for Ferrari, but Leclerc was comfortably the better of its two drivers both in dry and wet conditions.
After taking third in the sprint (gaining a place to Verstappen’s post-race penalty), he ran fourth early on in the grand prix - but stopping even before the VSC as a result of Ferrari’s tyre troubles in the wet cost him.
He ended up seventh, which was a decent return and limited the damage of what proved to be a weak track for Ferrari.
Verdict: Made close to the best of a bad job.
Started: 1st Finished: 6th
Needed assistance to win the sprint race, but put himself in the perfect position with pole position in the wet for the main event. His drop to sixth in the race was down to a combination of factors - losing the lead to Russell at the start, McLaren’s pace struggles in the wet, the misfortune of the red flag and two offs as he battled brake-locking dramas.
It would have been a very different story in the dry, but the rain made for a disappointing Sunday.
Verdict: Fast but couldn’t string it all together.
Started: 8th Finished: 8th
Thrived in the sprint part of the weekend, taking pole position when he improved on his second SQ3 lap and Norris didn’t. He then to all intents and purposes won the sprint, even though he had to hand victory to Norris.
Qualifying proper didn’t come together, partly because of what he obliquely referred to as a “problem” and partly because his execution wasn’t perfect, but he hung on in there in the race, finishing seventh on the road.
That became eighth when his penalty for clashing with Lawson - which he took responsibility for - was applied.
Verdict: Sprint showed what might have been possible.
Started: 11th Finished: 15th
Two heroic qualifying performances, albeit one of them only made possible by being bailed out of a too-early switch to intermediates by a red flag.
Two races where the Sauber didn’t have the speed to do anything but limit the inevitable losses.
It was overall about as good as it could get in the circumstances.
Verdict: Again fought a losing cause well.
Started: 5th Finished: 9th
Lawson had cause to be frustrated in the sprint, holding eighth for much of it before Perez passed him, although he did have a shot at overtaking Gasly before his Red Bull stablemate split them.
He then did a good job in qualifying, albeit not as good as Tsunoda, and had a combative race in which he once again got the better of Perez, on his way to a decent result.
Verdict: Bounced back from tricky Mexico.
Started: 9th Finished: 14th
This was a terrible weekend for Aston Martin, which chopped and changed car spec but no matter what it did could never make the car competitive.
After a painful sprint, he made the most of the conditions to qualify outstandingly but after hanging on in the points he dropped back as he battled braking problems and bouncing troubles that caused back pain - on top of the illness he’s been battling since Mexico that led to a return to Europe between the two races.
Verdict: Did well at least to challenge for a top 10.
Started: 12th Finished: 11th
Another stuttering weekend from Perez, who had his moments - including a tidy drive in the sprint to climb from 13th to eighth - but overall disappointed.
A spin on the opening lap meant he was always up against it in the grand prix. Coming out second-best in another scrap with Lawson allowed Hamilton to pass him, meaning he ended Sunday having made little contribution to Red Bull’s cause.
Verdict: Another painful weekend.
Started: 19th Finished: 15th
On the back foot from the start as FP1 was largely wasted with set-up experiments the team worked through, which meant the car had a “weird balance” in sprint qualifying that was compounded by Sauber mismanaging the timing so he didn’t get a second run.
Zhou had a better sprint race, ‘winning’ the pitlane-starter class by overtaking both Aston Martins. Traffic on his key lap ensured he qualified last, finishing there in the race and avoiding any big errors.
Verdict: Another tough weekend.
Started: 18th Finished: DNF
Hulkenberg continued to struggle to find his rhythm in the Haas, a continuation of a tricky Mexico weekend. That was reflected by a solid but unspectacular sprint, before gearbox failure intervened.
The Haas was a tougher proposition in the wet, with his off at Turn 1 ultimately putting him out given he was black flagged for the outside assistance required to get the Haas moving again.
Verdict: Not at his best.
Started: 14th Finished: 10th
“The race was crap, but driving [Ayrton] Senna’s car was the best thing ever,” tells you everything you need to know about Hamilton’s week. Unfortunately, thrilling everyone with a Senna tribute run in a 1990 McLaren doesn’t count for the rankings.
While Russell had a strong weekend, Hamilton was demoralised by the struggles to get a tune out of the Mercedes, which he described as “bad all weekend”.
A single point for 10th meant he got at least something out of Brazil, however trivial. At least he kept it out of the wall.
Verdict: Going through the motions.
Started: 15th Finished: 12th
Lightning struck for a third time for Bearman, who made his third stand-in appearance of the season after illness sidelined Magnussen. Initially only in for Friday, his strong performance and Magnussen’s struggles meant it was logical to let him complete the weekend.
With the Haas a handful in the wet, he struggled and had multiple offs in the grand prix - including a clumsy spin after clipping the back of Colapinto’s Williams. He battled on to the finish to bank valuable experience.
Verdict: Started well, but struggled in the wet.
Started: Pits Finished: DNF
Sainz had the worst of things at Ferrari, but while he was only just behind Leclerc in the dry sprint parts of the weekend - finishing fifth - he had what he called “a nightmare day” on Sunday with crashes both in qualifying, forcing a pitlane start after repairs, and the race - although he was only 13th when he had the second of his two “strange” shunts.
Verdict: A stark contrast to Mexico.
Started: 7th Finished: DNS
Albon’s weekend was defined by the qualifying crash that kept him out of the grand prix. He put that down to a braking problem that he was battling throughout qualifying, albeit one Williams couldn’t immediately diagnose.
A decent, but pointless, run to 10th from ninth on the grid in the sprint, along with reaching Q3 before the shunt, showed the performance was there. That pace and his belief something went wrong with the brakes when he crashed - Williams has yet to conclude the cause - are mitigating factors, but his ranking is inevitably badly hit by the shunt that stopped him racing on Sunday.
Verdict: Fast but Q3 crash tanks his ranking.
Started: 10th Finished: DNF
The sprint part of the weekend was a disaster for all of Aston Martin, with Stroll one of three to start from the pits and, after getting ahead of Alonso, falling behind his team-mate and Zhou to take last.
But although he did an excellent job to get through to Q3, his crash at the end of Q2, then the formation lap off that “felt like a brake failure” when the rears locked, followed by driving into the gravel having been told he could reverse, meant Sunday was a disaster.
Verdict: Difficult weekend, but car was terrible.
Started: 16th Finished: DNF
Had a difficult time on his first visit to Interlagos, with just FP1 to acclimatise himself before being pitched into the sprint part of the weekend. He didn't quite get it together in SQ2 but had a reasonable midfield race in the sprint, passing Bearman late on.
But Sunday was a struggle, and while his crash in qualifying was understandable, there’s no excuse for crashing heavily under the safety car even if he is far from the first to do something like this in such terrible conditions.
Verdict: Crash under safety car destroys his ranking.
