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Formula 1’s inaugural Miami Grand Prix hasn’t yielded any perfect scores in Edd Straw’s latest driver ratings, but there’s still plenty of high-scorers among some underperformers.
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: 3rd Finished: 1st
Qualifying
The failure to fit a hydraulic line properly after a precautionary gearbox change wiped out Verstappen’s FP2 and he wasn’t happy about Red Bull making life difficult for itself.
Fastest on the first runs in Q3, a snap of oversteer through Turn 5/6 ruined the crucial final attempt and left him third.
Race
Got around the outside of Sainz through the first sequence having made the most of the grip advantage off the line. He then set about Leclerc, passing him using the DRS on lap 9. Other than the period when he had to weather Leclerc’s brief resurgence after the red flag, he always had things completely under control.
Verdict: Qualifying wasn’t perfect, but did exactly what he needed to do in the race.
Started: 4th Finished: 4th
Qualifying
Perez was disappointed with Q3 despite being just 0.050s slower than Verstappen, with tyre temperatures rendering his first run a disaster and struggles in the twisty Turn 11-16 section on his second run costing him a possible front-row place.
Race
Spent the whole race chasing Sainz, not helped by losing ground during the first stint when a sensor problem cost him power and meant he lost touch with the Ferrari. The safety-car period allowed him another chance, but despite making one attempt to take the position into Turn 1, Sainz had him covered.
Verdict: Did the job he’s there for with another good weekend’s work, albeit ending up behind Sainz.
Started: 6th Finished: 6th
Qualifying
Hamilton felt the qualifying session as a whole went better than the previous couple of weekends, but did leave time on the table on his final Q3 lap thanks to a couple of moments that sapped time in the first and last sectors. Despite the decent result, Bottas was beatable.
Race
A lock-up into Turn 1 allowed Gasly to sneak past, with Alonso then squeezing past and making contact with the left-rear of the Mercedes. That left Hamilton eighth, but he picked them off in short order to run sixth. Then it was all about the chase of Bottas, sometimes getting close but never close enough to get into DRS range.
Stayed out under the safety car and lost a position to Russell, but that evened out thanks to both going past Bottas when the Alfa Romeo went wide.
Verdict: Perhaps could have been a place higher in qualifying, but executed his race well.
Started: 12th Finished: 5th
Qualifying
Delighted – and surprised – with the car on Friday but found it to be a “different beast” on Saturday thanks to the porpoising and resulting lively rear end.
That cost him confidence, particularly in the brake zones, and resulted in elimination in Q2.
Race
Made little progress early on while stuck in the DRS train, although did eventually repass Albon after being overtaken by the Williams driver. He then settled into a long run on his starting set of hard Pirellis but stayed out in the hope of a safety car, which he got. He’d have been seventh anyway given his strong pace late in that stint, but the fresh rubber allowed him to pass Hamilton and, thanks to the Alfa driver’s error, Bottas to take fifth.
Verdict: Lost confidence on Saturday, which compromises his rating, but barely put a foot wrong in the race.
Started: 1st Finished: 2nd
Qualifying
Leclerc didn’t feel his lap was perfect, but the new Miami circuit isn’t a ‘perfect lap’ kind of place.
But while he could perhaps have been a tenth or two faster, particularly after losing time with a scruffy run through the early corners. But it was good enough for pole position by two tenths.
Race
Held the lead early on but the Ferrari worked the medium Pirellis a little too hard and he always looked vulnerable. Verstappen got ahead at the start of lap nine, a move made straightforward by Leclerc making a small error in Turn 17. The safety car gave Leclerc, happier on the hard rubber, a second chance but despite pressuring Verstappen he couldn’t attempt to pass.
Verdict: Little he could do to keep Verstappen behind in that crucial first stint.
Started: 2nd Finished: 3rd
Qualifying
Until he got a little too aggressive on the throttle on overheating rear Pirellis exiting Turn 17, he was nip and tuck with Leclerc for pole position. But that wheelspin compromised his run to the line and left him 0.190s behind. Even so, a decent recovery after his Friday shunt.
Race
Slipped to second behind Verstappen at the start. From there, it was all about the battle with Perez. Despite a slow front-right change at his pitstop and Perez’s attack after the safety car, Sainz always held the aces in this fight.
Verdict: Got his season back on an even keel after recent mishaps and misfortune.
Started: 14th Finished: 13th
Qualifying
Trouble getting on track in Q2 ruined any hopes he had of advancing to the final stage of qualifying, although once again he appeared to be giving away a little time to team-mate Norris.
Race
Briefly ran 11th early on before being passed by Schumacher and Magnussen, gaining a place from Tsunoda and losing one to Russell later in the stint. He briefly ran as high as eighth during his 30-lap first stint, but when he pitted dropped behind Albon. That’s where he stayed, only to be denied what would have become 10th after Alonso’s penalties thanks to his own penalty for exceeding track limits in battle with Magnussen late on.
Verdict: A so-so weekend for Ricciardo made harder by late start to Q2.
Started: 8th Finished: DNF
Qualifying
Third-fastest in Q2 was an illusion, but Norris did leave two or three positions on the table in Q3 after failing to improve on his final run using soft tyres. That left his time on used softs from the first run to set his grid position, which was just over a tenth slower than his Q2 time.
Race
Ran ninth in the opening stint but when he made his pitstop he dropped behind the Aston Martins and the Haas drivers. He was still chasing Schumacher and Magnussen on lap 39 when Gasly clipped him after rejoining following his off, resulting in Norris’s elimination.
Verdict: Again, was the stronger McLaren driver and would have picked up a minor points finish but for Gasly’s intervention.
Started: 20th Finished: 8th
Qualifying
Ocon was unable to participate in qualifying thanks to cracking the monocoque in an FP3 shunt. He spun exiting Turn 13, hitting the wall at Turn 14 hard enough to trigger the g-force sensor and force a mandatory trip to the medical centre despite the relatively low speed.
Race
Rose from the back of the grid to eighth in the final classification not through a hard-charging drive, but through an intelligently-executed long first stint on hards before changing to softs under the safety car. That left him 10th, chasing Schumacher, but his attempt to pass him at Turn 17 didn’t work out, simply allowing Vettel to get ahead of both. But the subsequent collision between Vettel and Schumacher, along with Alonso’s penalties, added up to eighth place.
Verdict: His practice shunt hurts his rating badly, even though he drove a battling race carrying physical after-effects from the shunt.
Started: 11th Finished: 11th
Qualifying
Had the pace to make Q3, but traffic in the form of Sainz through the Turn 11-16 section “destroyed my lap”.
He was also compromised by traffic at the start of the lap, with wheelspin as he exited Turn 17 preceding a few moments early on his flier. But without Sainz, who did what he could to get out of the way, would have been in Q3 given he was only 0.036s off.
Race
Climbed to seventh at the start after capitalising on the grip he spotted on the outside line while on the drivers’ parade. That became eighth when Hamilton inevitably repassed him. Alonso was still eighth-on-the-road at the finish but by then had clattered into Gasly – he accepted the blame – and earned a five-second penalty. He then got a second penalty for cutting the track, dropping him to 11th at the chequered flag.
Verdict: Rapid and unfortunate but ultimately the misjudgements that cost him points damage his rating.
Started: 7th Finished: DNF
Qualifying
Gasly appeared to be struggling and at risk of being unqualified by team-mate Tsunoda, only to pull a superb lap out of the bag on his final Q3 run. That lap was six-tenths faster than anything he’d produced previously and came in the nick of time, giving him AlphaTauri’s best qualifying position of the year.
Race
Held sixth early on before being passed by Hamilton before getting stuck behind Ocon after making his pitstop at the end of lap 16. Gasly was on target for eighth place with Russell having put himself into the position to overcut him when he was hit by Alonso, sustaining damage that led to the subsequent collision with Norris.
Verdict: Hit form with a superb Q3 lap and was denied a decent result by the Alonso collision. Gets the benefit of the doubt in the Norris incident.
Started: 9th Finished: 12th
Qualifying
Tsunoda had a solid run through practice and qualifying and even looked to have a shot at outqualifying Gasly again. But he couldn’t find the same performance step his team-mate did at the end of Q3, ending up a quarter of a second slower – mainly thanks to time lost through Turn 7/8.
Race
Held 10th for a few laps but got into all sorts of tyre trouble and was shuffled back to 13th. His second stint started slowly and although things improved, he never got back into points contention even amid the late-race incidents.
Verdict: A promising weekend that badly got away from him in the race, hence the below-average rating.
Started: 13th (pitlane) Finished: 17th
Qualifying
Looked to be on target to make it to Q3 but a small error proved costly and left him just outside the cutoff – much to his disappointment. But he found the Aston Martin to be working better in Miami than in previous races.
Race
Ran last early on having had to start from the pits thanks to Aston Martin’s fuel-temperature problems. He ran long and took the late restart 14th, getting ahead of Stroll and Magnussen when they tangled then passing Albon. He then opportunistically passed Schumacher and Ocon while they battled at Turn 17 to run ninth. His unlikely points finish evaporated when he clashed with Schumacher at Turn 1.
Verdict: Had a decent weekend and looked set to be rewarded for it before the unfortunate Schumacher clash.
Started: 10th (pitlane) Finished: 10th
Qualifying
Made it to Q3 for the first time in 2022 but potentially gave away a place or two with a messy final sector – ending up slower in the final stage of qualifying than he had been in Q2.
Race
Like his team-mate, had to start from the pits and run long on hard Pirellis, which put him 12th in the queue for the restart. A clash with Magnussen meant he dropped to 15th, recovering to finish 12th on-the-road thanks to other incidents. That became 10th when Ricciardo and Alonso were penalised.
Verdict: Stroll’s best weekend of the season merited the slice of luck that gave him a point.
Started: 19th Finished: 14th
Qualifying
Despite running fractionally heavier than his team-mate, primarily thanks to running some repaired parts, Latifi was just half-a-tenth off Albon. Having struggled with confidence so far this season, for the first time he seemed a little more at one with the car than his team-mate – at least in terms of getting close to stringing together a lap.
Race
Ran long in the first stint after starting on hards in the hope of making something happen, but given the fact he had to manage his fuel more than expected little progress was made. Misfortune for others meant he avoided finishing last, with the Haas drivers and Vettel all behind him after their late dramas.
Verdict: Followed up a good qualifying performance with an anonymous race.
Started: 18th Finished: 9th
Qualifying
“Frustrating” and “confusing” was his summary of qualifying after a promising Friday wasn’t backed up by the expected improvements on Saturday. Tyres seemed to be at the heart of the problem with Albon complaining “the tyres were nowhere” after a final run that was untidy in places as he struggled to string the lap together amid variable grip.
Race
Briefly got up to 14th in the first stint after passing Russell, but dropped back after making his pitstop on lap 16 having already slipped behind the Mercedes driver. That left him on a long run to the end on the hards that the Williams works well on, taking the restart 11th before being passed by Vettel. The subsequent Vettel/Schumacher collision and Alonso’s penalty meant he finished ninth.
Verdict: Couldn’t show his pace in qualifying, but drove another strong race.
Started: 17th Finished: DNF
Qualifying
Failed to reach Q2 for the first time in his short F1 career, which was blamed on having to abort his final flier after encountering heavy traffic in the final sector. But he would have needed a big improvement in the third sector to have made Q2 given an untidy run through the middle part of the lap.
Race
Ran 14th early on but retired after six laps with a water pump problem that led to the team stopping the car before overheating caused damage.
Verdict: His underlying pace was better than he showed, but his rating is hurt by the fact he has to carry the can for the Q1 exit.
Started: 5th Finished: 7th
Qualifying
Went into qualifying slightly undercooked after his FP1 crash meant he missed FP2. But after flirting with disaster in Q1 in 15th place, completing just a single six-lap run and aborting his final lap after a sideways moment. But once he found his rhythm and got the tyres in the window, he was much happier and achieved the best-possible qualifying result in fifth.
Race
Until lap 49, Bottas had a vice-like grip on fifth place. The safety car meant the Mercedes drivers were with him at the restart, with Bottas holding on comfortably enough initially but ultimately went deep at Turn 17 while under pressure and lost two places.
Verdict: Friday crash and late-race error undermine an otherwise excellent weekend.
Started: 16th Finished: 16th
Qualifying
Found himself without radio communications during Q1, resulting in him staying out and completing one longer run rather than coming in for a fresh set of rubber. He did set his best lap on his final push lap, but it wasn’t good enough to reach Q2.
Race
Climbed from 14th on the opening lap to 11th – passing Ricciardo, Tsunoda and, thanks to a team order, Schumacher, before making his first stop. That timing left him mired among the long-running Aston Martins and he did move up to 10th under the safety car before his decision to take fresh rubber dropped him to 13th. A couple of late scrapes with Stroll gave him front wing damage and a five-second penalty.
Verdict: His pace was undermined by qualifying and strategic misfortune – but the lost points shot late on counts against him despite the circumstances.
Started: 15th Finished: 15th
Qualifying
Looked to be a potential Q3 threat, but his second run in Q2 proved to be a struggle and he wasn’t able to improve on his first-run pace – set on used softs.
That left him 15th, although he suspected the Haas didn’t quite have the pace for the top 10 despite some promising moments in practice.
Race
Picked off Ricciardo and Tsunoda in the early stages to run 10th before briefly handing the position to Magnussen thanks to a team order. He showed good pace at times and was 10th when he collided with Vettel while trying to take ninth at Turn 1, ruining his race.
Verdict: Deserved to break his points duck, although getting caught out by the lack of grip offline contributed to the incident that ruined his race and means his rating is average.
