There aren’t many drives in a Formula 1 season that are truly flawless and worthy of absolute full marks in Edd Straw’s driver ratings.
But the 2022 Canadian Grand Prix featured one…
After each grand prix, The Race will rate each driver’s weekend with a mark out of 10.
An average mark is 5 out of 10, so that score is indicative of a decent drive given the high standard of drivers in F1.
For a more in-depth explanation, read our outline of the system.
Started: 1st Finished: 1st
Qualifying
Breezed to pole position in difficult conditions, setting the pace in Q1, Q2 and Q3 and ending up 0.645s clear of Alonso. Did a good job to make the most of the improving grip and never looked like being beaten.
Race
Led from the start but stopped under the early VSC for hards. This set him up for a last-stint chase of Sainz with a 23-lap tyre life advantage on hards, with the deficit 7.5 seconds when the safety car was deployed.
He took the lead when Sainz stopped and drove precisely to hold off the Ferrari driver in the final 16 laps after the restart.
Verdict: Imperious in qualifying and the race.
Started: 13th Finished: DNF
Qualifying
Only 13th fastest on wets in Q1, he then locked the inside-front wheel into Turn 3 and slid into the barrier.
He couldn’t extract the car thanks to the nose being embedded in the Tecpro barrier, which meant elimination in Q2.
Race
Perez got ahead of Albon and Bottas on the first lap to run 11th and was up to 10th thanks to Magnussen’s enforced pitstop when he retired with a gearbox problem on lap eight.
Verdict: Did little to make up for his qualifying blunder before his early retirement.
Started: 4th Finished: 3rd
Qualifying
Described it as “awesome” to be as high as fourth, his best qualifying of the season.
His fastest lap was the penultimate lap of the drying session and he was even in contention for a front row place for the first part of it – although a better strategy could have given him a shot at doing better on his final lap.
Race
After holding off Magnussen on the opening lap, Hamilton executed the race well, making a pitstop under the first VSC then a second on lap 44 and regaining third place when Russell made his inevitable second pitstop a lap later. Passed the long-running Alonso during his middle stint to secure a top-three place.
Verdict: After a shaky Friday, performed well in both qualifying and the race.
Started: 8th Finished: 4th
Qualifying
Russell seemed to have the edge on Hamilton in pace through qualifying, including on the first runs in Q3, partly because he was running a little more wing.
But he was the only driver to gamble on slicks for the final run, with his attempt coming unstuck through Turn 1/2 when he spun and lightly backed into the barrier.
Race
Made short work of climbing to fifth early on and made his first stop under the second VSC. That put him fifth, and he jumped Alonso when the Alpine driver pitted.
At one stage, there was the hope he might run to the end without a second stop, which could have yielded third, but Mercedes wisely opted to pit under the safety car.
Verdict: Rating is compromised by his erroneous but understandable slick gamble, but otherwise a strong weekend.
Started: 19th Finished: 5th
Qualifying
Power unit change penalties rendered qualifying irrelevant for Leclerc. He set the fifth-fastest time in Q1, ensuring he started ahead of fellow back-of-the-grid penalty driver Tsunoda.
Race
A slow burner of a race, with a long first stint on mediums largely mired in traffic, was made even harder when three seconds lost in his pitstop to a problem with the left-rear meant he rejoined behind a group of four cars he should have been ahead of.
Picked his way through them to take fifth, but the pitstop cost him a shot at third or fourth.
Verdict: Did a good, patient job on a weekend of damage limitation.
Started: 3rd Finished: 2nd
Qualifying
Sainz flirted with being in the pole position fight and his final lap started well with the quickest first sector time before things started to get away from him.
Knowing he’d lost too much time to Verstappen, he tried to regain lost time in the final corner and had a moment at the exit, costing him second place to Alonso.
Race
Ran third early on but dispatched Alonso for second on the third lap. Stayed out under the early VSC but stopped in the second to set up a run to the end.
He was 7.5s ahead when the safety car was deployed, allowing him to stop for fresh hards. Took the restart second and pressured Verstappen, but couldn’t launch a passing attempt.
Verdict: Futile over-aggression at the last corner cost him a place on the grid, but drove a good race.
Started: 9th Finished: 11th
Qualifying
Ricciardo seemed confident in the car and had an encouraging run through practice and appeared to be at a similar level to Norris. He described this, coming off the back of a solid Baku weekend, as “positive”.
But with the McLaren getting less competitive as the track dried, Ricciardo couldn’t improve on his final lap in the best of the conditions.
Race
Held ninth early on before being relegated to 10th by Zhou, but never quite had the pace to take points. Stopped under the second VSC – and had a slow stop – and again under the safety car, taking the final restart 11th and taking 10th from long-running Vettel, only to be passed by Stroll with seven laps to go.
Verdict: Seemed comfortable in the car but couldn’t quite haul it to a points finish.
Started: 14th Finished: 15th
Qualifying
A power unit problem that created a misfire ruined Q2 for Norris, leaving him with no chance to advance to Q3. He was slower than Ricciardo in Q1 by just over four-tenths.
Race
Switched to a well-used, slightly underpowered, engine for the race. But any hopes of climbing into points contention was ruined by McLaren’s botched double-stack pitstop that, thanks to Ricciardo blocking the pit box and his own slow stop, cost Norris 19 seconds and dropped him to the back.
A five-second penalty for speeding in the pits at his second stop added insult to injury but didn’t impact his position.
Verdict: Problems make judging performance difficult, but appeared decent enough.
Started: 7th Finished: 6th
Qualifying
Ocon said he was on the “back foot” all weekend and suspected a car problem was the reason for being a clear step behind Alonso on pace regardless of the conditions.
Time lost in the chicanes was particularly noticeable thanks to a lack of rear grip and left him 1.6s off Alonso.
Race
Other than being passed by Russell early on, gave nothing away on his way to sixth place.
He stopped under the second VSC and the safety car, a strategy that allowed him to jump Alonso thanks to his team-mate’s long first stint.
Verdict: Executed his race well but not at Alonso’s level despite finishing ahead.
Started: 2nd Finished: 9th
Qualifying
Excelled throughout qualifying, with his final lap earning him a place on the front row for the first time since the 2012 German Grand Prix.
He described that last lap as “all-in”, taking a few risks along the way and ending up a tenth-and-a-half clear of Sainz. But as he put it, Verstappen was “in another league” and any chance of pole had vanished by the time Alonso exited Turn 4 given the time lost.
Race
Having promised to challenge for the lead at the start, an average launch meant he had to settle for second, which became third when Sainz passed him.
Alonso held his own until an MGU-K related power unit problem slowed him. That, combined with missing the second VSC through a quirk of timing and running long, meant the race got away from him. Took seventh on the road, but earned himself a justified five-second penalty by weaving in front of Bottas on the last lap.
Verdict: On inspired form, but the penalty was needlessly self-inflicted.
Started: 15th Finished: 14th
Qualifying
Gasly described his second Q1 run as “a complete disaster” with the front-left brake never getting up to temperature. That led to a messy lap and, after being the first driver to take the chequered flag, the failure to get into the top 15.
Race
Dropped to 17th on the first lap and it was a sign of the kind of afternoon he faced that he was being instructed to lift off to control temperatures on lap two. “No pace all afternoon, no front, no rear, can’t brake, can’t accelerate” was his summary on the slow-down lap, which pretty much sums up his struggles. An early stop to find clear air didn’t help and he spent the afternoon going nowhere.
Verdict: Couldn’t salvage anything from a difficult weekend.
Started: 20th Finished: DNF
Qualifying
Took a new power unit at the start of the weekend, meaning he was always going to start at the back. Completed a token short run at the start of Q1, ending up slowest.
Race
Made a little progress in the first half of the race and was running behind Zhou having made his first pitstop under the early VSC. He then made a second stop on lap 46 but slid into the wall when rejoining, ending his race.
Verdict: Race performance was reasonable but the blunder destroys his rating.
Started: 17th Finished: 12th
Qualifying
With Aston Martin not dropping the tyre pressures enough for the wet conditions having struggled to build temperature during FP3, Vettel found the car feeling “so different” to during practice.
Struggling for grip, he failed to make it through to Q1, which was bitterly disappointing given the potential pace of the car.
Race
Needed a fair wind to get to the position he and the car had the pace to but didn’t get it, with his early first stop preceding the first VSC.
Stopped under the second VSC and then attempted to run to the end, climbing to ninth when others pitted under the safety car but inevitably being shuffled back to 12th by those on fresher tyres.
Verdict: Quick, but tyre pressure troubles and race misfortune meant he couldn’t show it.
Started: 18th Finished: 10th
Qualifying
Stroll struggled even more than team-mate Vettel with Aston Martin’s tyre-pressure problems and never looked like making Q2 despite generally performing well in wet conditions. He was denied the chance for a last-gasp effort to get him through when he hit the yellow flag deployed for Sainz’s off.
Race
Ran a marathon first stint after starting on hards, but had the misfortune of making his pitstop just before the safety car was deployed. Without that, might well have beaten Zhou. But a point was a good return after qualifying troubles.
Verdict: Solid performance on home soil.
Started: 18th Finished: 16th
Qualifying
Didn’t have the ideal preparation for qualifying as he struggled in the wet in FP3 and hit a groundhog. Lacked confidence in the brakes during Q1 and never looked like making it to Q2, lapping 1.6s off team-mate Albon and having a number of offs.
Race
Made no progress from his lowly starting position, struggling to extract grip from the tyres. Did at least pass the struggling Magnussen late on, but on a day when Williams lacked pace he was again well off Albon’s speed.
Verdict: Another weekend with few obvious signs of progress.
Started: 12th Finished: 13th
Qualifying
Made the most of the wet conditions to post his best qualifying performance of the season in 12th, albeit assisted by Perez and Norris’s misfortunes.
But given the Williams didn’t appear to have the pace for a Q3 slot and he comprehensively outpaced Latifi, this was a good performance from Albon.
Race
Ran 12th early on but he was always battling against competitive gravity. His cause wasn’t helped by making his first stop just before the second VSC, which dropped him to 16th.
Albon reckoned 13th was as good as it was going to get, and although it might have been possible to finish a place higher with better strategic luck, he did all he could.
Verdict: Continues to extract the pace from a very limited Williams package.
Started: 10th Finished: 8th
Qualifying
Reached Q3 for the first time in his Formula 1 career with an intelligent and progressive approach to each of the first two segments of qualifying. On both occasions, he required a good final lap to advance and he delivered it. Admitted his Q3 was “messy” but his last lap was again his best.
Race
Held 10th on the first lap and passed Ricciardo for ninth on lap four. That became eighth when Magnussen made his enforced first stop.
Zhou stopped under the second VSC, but then got stuck behind long-running Stroll and complained about the lack of top speed to make a pass. He was released when Stroll pitted, with the safety car allowing him to then pit and stay ahead, albeit with the downside that it also ensured Bottas finished ahead of him.
Verdict: The best weekend so far for a driver doing a quietly impressive job.
Started: 11th Finished: 7th
Qualifying
Looked to have the pace to have made Q3 but ended up in 11th. That was down to a combination of bad timing, as he was the second driver to complete his final lap in the best of the conditions, and locking the inside front into Turn 1 on his final lap.
That compromised him horribly through Turn 2 and cost significant time, but he still improved on that last attempt and missed the cutoff by just over four-tenths.
Race
Lost a couple of places at the end of the first lap when he locked up and cut the final chicane to run 12th.
Opted to run long, which paid off when he made his sole pitstop under the safety car. Re-emerged eighth behind Alonso having jumped Zhou, picking up seventh when Alonso was penalised for weaving to keep him behind on the last lap.
Verdict: Some rough edges dull the shine of a good weekend’s work.
Started: 5th Finished: 17th
Qualifying
Although he did have an off along the way, Magnussen made Q3 relatively comfortably and set the fifth-fastest time.
That said, his final lap – the second push lap on his second set of intermediates – had to be aborted after a poor first sector with a big moment coming out of Turn 3-4. Perhaps could have done even better, but even so a good performance.
Race
Challenged Hamilton for fourth on the outside approaching Turn 3, but contact caused some front wing damage that led to him being given the black-and-orange flag and forced into the pits.
That cast him to the back, so he went to the end on the set of hards he switched to, a run of 63 laps, taking the post-safety car restart 12th but inevitably being shuffled to the back.
Verdict: Quick, but could have played it smarter on the opening lap. The black and orange flag was harsh, though.
Started: 6th Finished: DNF
Qualifying
Made the most of the conditions to put in the best qualifying performance of his F1 career.
But by his own estimation, he didn’t get the most out of Q3 as he didn’t maximise his second set of tyres with a messy start to his final lap. He ended up four-tenths off team-mate Magnussen.
Race
Schumacher ran eighth early on after losing two places on the opening lap before moving up to sixth when Magnussen made his enforced pitstop. He was running behind Ocon and ahead of Zhou when he slowed with a power unit problem.
Verdict: Put his recent struggles behind him with a good weekend that should have yielded a first points finish.
