The tyre curveball made a huge difference to the Formula 1 pecking order in the second Silverstone race, and some handled that much better than others.
That means one of the highest scores we’ve seen so far for any driver in Edd Straw’s ratings, and some low marks – including for a driver who’s getting accustomed to being at that end of the table.
Passionately agree or vehemently disagree? You can debate Edd’s scores with him live in the comments section at the bottom of the article at 3pm UK time today.
Started: 2nd Finished: 2nd
Qualifying
Practice laps: 60
Gap to team-mate: +0.063s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.040s
Hamilton conceded Bottas did a better job on Saturday, but seemed a little shell-shocked after being outqualified by his team-mate in what was ultimately a very close battle. He seemed to lose a little time through Copse and then to destabilising the car by kissing the raised kerb at the entry to Club, leaving him just behind Bottas.
Race
Penalties: –
Positions gained/lost lap 1: none
2 stops – medium/hard/hard
Both Mercedes drivers were constrained by tyre trouble that hit early in the race, although Hamilton still had a go at striking out on a one-stopper that inevitably had to be aborted.
Considering the problems, second was the best possible result, although he was helped by the team being able to inspect Bottas’s second-stint tyres and know it was safe to leave him out.
VERDICT: By his own admission, didn’t quite do the job in qualifying but drove a fine race in adversity.
Started: 2nd Finished: 3rd
Qualifying
Practice laps: 59
Gap to team-mate: -0.063s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.000s
Having been outperformed by Hamilton last weekend, Bottas studied, tweaked his set-up approach and his reward was reversing the qualifying form and claiming pole position after making the car slightly more responsive on turn in.
Race
Penalties: –
Positions gained/lost lap 1: none
2 stops – medium/hard/hard
Bottas was understandably bitterly disappointed to turn pole position and a first-stint lead into third place.
The key to losing the position to Hamilton was his shorter second stint, and in particular the decision to pit because of a vibration on the left rear that was struggling with blistering.
VERDICT: Superb in qualifying and a little unfortunate in the race, but could perhaps have demanded to press on in the middle stint if he felt that strongly.
Started: 11th Finished: 12th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 71
Gap to team-mate: +0.369s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.000s
While Vettel was left baffled after dropping out in Q2 having, he reckoned, extracted the most from the car, he was significantly closer to Leclerc than he had been either last weekend or last year at Silverstone. Still not as at home with a car that didn’t give him confidence, but he at least made some progress.
Race
Penalties: –
Positions gained/lost lap 1: DOWN 9
2 stops – hard/hard/medium
The first lap spin after clobbering the kerb was disastrous for Vettel’s race, although he was starting to build a potential recovery when he was called in for his first pitstop despite wanting to continue.
This put him behind Raikkonen and Kvyat and cost him time, meaning he couldn’t quite contend for points.
VERDICT: Slower than Leclerc and the first-corner mistake was poor. But his strategic frustration is justified and probably was caused by Ferrari wanting to keep him out of Leclerc’s way.
Started: 8th Finished: 4th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 70
Gap to team-mate: -0.369s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.046s
Leclerc couldn’t make the softs last for a full lap, but despite continuing to outpace team-mate Vettel emphatically he perhaps could have been a place higher even though Ferrari had lost the edge its aggressive set-up approach yielded last weekend as others followed it.
Race
Penalties: –
Positions gained/lost lap 1: DOWN 2
1 stop – medium/hard
Leclerc dropped a couple of places to run 10th at the start and when he made his first stop to switch to hards after 18 laps he appeared to be on a trajectory that would have netted a point or two at best.
But an improbable 34-lap second stint allowed him to finish ahead of a number of cars he shouldn’t have done in fourth place, as he showed both admirable tyre management and great control and awareness.
VERDICT: Rightly described fourth position as like a victory after an exemplary race. The sole criticism was that he could have qualified a place higher.
Started: 4th Finished: 1st
Qualifying
Practice laps: 51
Gap to team-mate: -0.493s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.058s
Verstappen did a good job to set his Q2 time on the hard Pirellis to ensure he was the only driver in the top 10 to use the C2s for the first stint of the race. But messiness at Brooklands and Luffield cost him third on the grid.
Race
Penalties: –
Positions gained/lost lap 1: UP 1
2 stops – hard/medium/hard
A superbly-executed race from Verstappen, who jumped Hulkenberg at the start, sensed his opportunity when Mercedes was struggling in the first stint and then pressed home his advantage ruthlessly.
Having handled the first half of the race on his starting set of hards, he built enough of an advantage to run an ultra-short medium stint then pit to cover the Mercedes and never looked like losing the lead.
VERDICT: A brilliantly-executed weekend, particularly in the way Verstappen was keen to push when he realised he had a chance. Messy Q3 lap that cost a place on the grid is the one small negative.
Started: 9th Finished: 5th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 62
Gap to team-mate: +0.493s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.108s
Albon struggled more on the soft Pirellis than the hard in qualifying trim, slipping from 0.341s behind team-mate Verstappen on the first Q3 runs on the medium tyres to half-a-second on the second on softs.
Race
Penalties: –
Positions gained/lost lap 1: none
2 stops – medium/hard/hard
The attempt to use a very early stop to make up some ground was frustrated by Gasly covering him and also time lost behind Raikkonen but Albon set a good pace as the race started to come to him. He made a net gain of four places, passing Gasly, Stroll and Norris on track, with Ricciardo’s spin saving him the trouble.
VERDICT: Qualifying half-a-second off Verstappen still isn’t good enough. A good race performance, but without time wasted early in stint two he should have been fourth.
Started: 10th Finished: 9th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 72
Gap to team-mate: -0.198s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.026s
From fifth the previous weekend at Silverstone to 10th looks like a slump, but Norris reckoned there wasn’t significantly more pace in the car. Given how tidy his qualifying lap was and the the progress made by some of McLaren’s rivals this didn’t seem an unreasonable claim.
Race
Penalties: –
Positions gained/lost lap 1: UP 2
2 stops – medium/hard/hard
As was the case for many, this was a race in which Norris was constrained by tyre troubles. He ran eighth in the first stint, but the charging Albon went around the outside of him at Luffield on what became his second in-lap and consolidated the position with a one-lap ‘overcut’.
Ocon’s one-stop strategy also got him ahead of Norris, who chased the Renault to the end but felt he couldn’t attack because he had “no grip”.
VERDICT: Given the competitiveness of the McLaren, the qualifying and race results couldn’t have been significantly better.
Started: 12th Finished: 13th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 74
Gap to team-mate: +0.198s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.000s
Overheating problems led to Sainz running with the cooling opened up a little on Saturday, which put him at a disadvantage to Norris. Whether it’s enough to justify the two-tenths gap is hard to judge from the outside but the lap itself looked good with no significant errors and he was consistently down on Norris in the speed traps. Team principal Andreas Seidl also said the two-tenths deficit was consistent once on different specs.
Race
Penalties: –
Positions gained/lost lap 1: UP 1
2 stops – hard/medium/hard
Sainz’s hopes of making it into the points were torpedoed by his first pitstop following a stint that had set him up for a decent result. He lost 7-8 seconds thanks to a front-left wheelgun system problem that meant he wasn’t given the green light despite the wheel being properly attached.
This put him behind Gasly, Ocon and Kvyat, all of which he should have emerged ahead of with a normal stop. He was also undercut by Vettel at the second stop, which all added up to a 13th-place finish.
VERDICT: The disadvantage of the cooling configuration was clear and without the problems at the first stop he would likely have scored at least a point.
Started: 5th Finished: 14th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 64
Gap to team-mate: -0.375s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.121s
Fifth was a good result on paper, but Ricciardo’s final Q3 lap wasn’t quite what he hoped for as the pace was potentially there to have pipped Verstappen to fourth place without a messy middle sector – although his excellent first flier in the final part of qualifying perhaps raised expectations.
Race
Penalties: –
Positions gained/lost lap 1: DOWN 1
2 stops – medium/medium/hard
Ricciardo’s race went well enough for the first two stints, with him holding sixth place having lost one to Stroll on the opening lap. But the fact he only had one set of hards meant he had to run mediums in the second stint, which defined his second stop time and created the conditions for the moment that ruined his race.
What he dubbed the ‘Seb Spin’ – losing it on applying the power at corner exit while in close proximity to another car – when battling with Sainz after his second stop damaged his one set of hards and forced another stop, condemning him to anonymity.
VERDICT: Ricciardo’s pace was good, but his mistake in battle proved immensely costly and turned a promising weekend to dust.
Started: 14th Finished: 8th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 63
Gap to team-mate: +0.375s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.027s
Ocon can’t be blamed for the three-place grid penalty for impeding Russell in qualifying given the pitwall gave him no warning of the Williams’s approach.
But he continues to struggle to match Ricciardo in qualifying trim with the gap almost twice what it was last weekend. While he said he was suspicious that there may have been a problem, as of Sunday night he said the team was still investigating.
Race
Penalties: +3 grid drop (impeding in Q1)
Positions gained/lost lap 1: UP 2
1 stop – hard/medium
According to F1 itself Ocon had the best start, which combined with Vettel’s mishap added up to 12th place on the first lap.
He made a long stint on the mediums work as he struck out for a one-stop strategy that paid off and got him ahead of Sainz, Norris and Gasly. Ricciardo’s spin and resulting extra stop meant that added up to eighth.
VERDICT: Qualifying was average – albeit with an asterisk against it given his car suspicions – but his race drive was excellent.
Started: 7th Finished: 11th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 69
Gap to team-mate: -0.728s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.158s
Gasly was happier with the car than he was last weekend, or indeed on Friday, especially as the wind conditions helped to dial out some of the understeer the AlphaTauri struggles with at times. The result was an outstanding qualifying position ahead of several potentially faster cars.
Race
Penalties: –
Positions gained/lost lap 1: none
2 stops – medium/hard/hard
The race went superbly…for all of seven laps before AlphaTauri decided to call him in to cover Albon’s early stop.
That put Gasly onto a distorted two-stop strategy that ruined his race and left him with a lengthy final stint in which he never had a realistic chance of catching Kvyat – but did do a fine job to keep Vettel behind.
VERDICT: He’s driving brilliantly and there wasn’t much more he could have done given the poor strategic hand he was dealt.
Started: 16th Finished: 10th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 78
Gap to team-mate: +0.728s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.619s
A Q1 exit compared to team-mate Gasly up in seventh in Q3 looks poor, but Kvyat’s qualifying was progressing well until he ran wide exiting the right-hander of Becketts thanks to a gust of wind and damaged his floor. This led to a snap at Stowe, where he ran wide and had a laptime that was good enough for Q2 deleted.
Race
Penalties: –
Positions gained/lost lap 1: UP 2
2 stops – hard/hard/medium
Kvyat got up to 14th on the first lap before passing Magnussen. Running an orthodox strategy allowed him to get ahead of Gasly and Sainz, with Ricciardo’s spin and resulting additional stop ensuring he was able to take a point for 10th.
VERDICT: Continues to struggle in qualifying despite some promising signs, but executed a straightforward race drive well.
Started: 3rd Finished: 7th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 67
Gap to team-mate: -0.346s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.125s
Perez’s stand-in maximised the potential of the Racing Point in qualifying trim and was rewarded with only the second appearance of his F1 career in a post-qualifying top-three press conference. Given the circumstances, this was Hulkenberg at his best.
Race
Penalties: –
Positions gained/lost lap 1: DOWN 1
3 stops – medium/hard/hard/soft
Hulkenberg only lost one place on his first ‘live’ start in the Racing Point and looked firmly on course for fourth place until the second half of the race.
An extra stop because of concerns about the tyres – and he did complain twice about vibrations as he struggled on his second hard set – cost him a place to Stroll.
VERDICT: Great in qualifying, very good in the race and all the more impressive given his limited mileage.
Started: 6th Finished: 6th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 65
Gap to team-mate: +0.346s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.013s
Stroll seemed to lack the pace that stand-in team-mate Hulkenberg found, particularly in the first sector where a wobble on entry to Turn 4 that leads onto the Wellington Straight cost him, and admitted that he “wasn’t driving great”.
Race
Penalties: –
Positions gained/lost lap 1: UP 1
2 stops – medium/hard/hard
Having started sixth and passed Ricciardo at The Loop on the opening lap then had a go at Hulkenberg around the outside at Brooklands but locked up, Stroll settled into fifth place.
On an orthodox two-stopper, he lost out to one-stopping Leclerc and being passed by the charging Albon, but that added up to sixth thanks to Hulkenberg making an extra stop.
VERDICT: An accomplished race after a so-so qualifying, although a small error at Luffield made it a little too easy for Albon to attack.
Started: 20th Finished: 15th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 66
Gap to team-mate: +0.060s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.000s
Raikkonen wasn’t happy after qualifying. He wasn’t happy with his messy first sector, he wasn’t happy with a car that he felt had no chance of escaping Q1 and he wasn’t happy when he was sawing at the wheel in Maggots/Becketts just before turning in a slow final sector.
Race
Penalties: –
Positions gained/lost lap 1: UP 1
1 stop – hard/medium
Raikkonen made a one-stop strategy work well to take what was effectively a class win in 15th place with a gaggle of quicker cars behind him that never quite caught up.
That might sound like a reason to be satisfied, but not for Raikkonen. “No, it was not, we got nothing out of it,” he said. “Eleventh or last makes no difference.”
VERDICT: Qualifying was so-so even considering the car’s lack of pace, but drove a tidy, effective race.
Started: 17th Finished: 17th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 39
Gap to team-mate: -0.060s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.011s
As has been usual in dry conditions this year, Giovinazzi had the legs of Raikkonen in qualifying trim but almost squandered his advantage with a messy final sector with wide moments at Becketts, which he blamed on wind, and then Stowe. Definitely qualified one place lower as a result.
Race
Penalties: –
Positions gained/lost lap 1: UP 4
2 stops – medium/hard/medium
Giovinazzi did a good job on the first lap, aided by Vettel’s spin, to get up to 15th place.
But making his first stop early and the puzzling decision to use mediums rather than the hard set he had available for the final stint led to him finishing behind both Raikkonen and, after being passed around the outside of Stowe, Grosjean.
VERDICT: Did fine and strategy errors potentially cost him 15th, but still too many little errors despite a reasonable turn of speed.
Started: 13th Finished: 16th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 69
Gap to team-mate: -0.717s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.000s
Grosjean was right on top of the car in qualifying having fractionally moderated his default style of turning in aggressively on the brakes. The result was an outstanding qualifying performance given the machinery, one he said reminded him of the good old days of Lotus and that stands in his top three of Haas qualifying performances.
It’s just a shame the car isn’t that quick, so one of the qualifying laps of the season was a mere footnote.
Race
Penalties: –
Positions gained/lost lap 1: DOWN 3
2 stops – medium/hard/hard
Bogging down at the start meant he largely undid the work of qualifying but he settled into 16th place behind Giovinazzi in the first stint – narrowly avoiding rear-ending him at Village early on after a brake-bias setting blunder.
Grosjean struck out on a one-stop strategy that he had to abandon, making a second stop on lap 38 and setting about chasing down the Alfa Romeos and Latifi from 18th place. Latifi handed him a place when he made an additional stop, while a superb move around the outside of Stowe saw off Giovinazzi. But he couldn’t do anything about Raikkonen.
VERDICT: Drove beautifully in qualifying, and while the race didn’t go to plan his pace was good – for a Haas.
Started: 17th Finished: DNF
Qualifying
Practice laps: 61
Gap to team-mate: +0.717s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.032s
After qualifying, Magnussen described it as “ a terrible weekend” and a look at his qualifying lap confirms why. He seemed to struggle to get the front end into the lower-speed corners and looked unstable in the fast stuff. While his team-mate Grosjean was at one with his Haas, Magnussen appeared at war with his.
Race
Penalties: 5s (unsafe rejoin)
Positions gained/lost lap 1: UP 4
2 stops – soft/hard/hard/retired
Other than the first few seconds, when he barrelled down the left side of the grid after hooking up a superb start, this was a difficult race for Magnussen.
He eventually retired because there was little point continuing given his tyre-shredding struggles, but along the way he also earned a five-second penalty for rejoining dangerously at Stowe while scrapping with Latifi.
VERDICT: A weekend of struggles for Magnussen during which he either had a fundamental car problem, or just never got on top of the changed conditions.
Started: 18th Finished: 19th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 70
Gap to team-mate: +0.673s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.000s
Latifi struggled with the wind conditions in qualifying and didn’t nail his final run, not helped by an error on his previous run that left him up against it. While he felt Q2 was possible, it seems unlikely – given the deficit to Russell – even if he’d had a better second run.
Race
Penalties: –
Positions gained/lost lap 1: none
2 stops – medium/hard/hard/medium
F1 2020’s only rookie had a feisty first lap, getting ahead of Russell, then making a mistake at Luffield and dropping behind the sister car before passing it again into Copse, although the resulting wobble through the corner allowed his team-mate to come back at him and slip ahead after a spectacular side-by side run through Maggots and the first part of Becketts.
Latifi said the car felt “amazing” in the race despite having to make an extra stop because the rear-left couldn’t make it. But he felt the team missed a trick by not ordering Russell to let him past.
VERDICT: Qualifying was disappointing, but this was his most convincing race performance yet.
Started: 15th Finished: 18th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 72
Gap to team-mate: -0.673s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.000s
Another strong qualifying performance kept up his streak of getting into Q2 despite the wind conditions making the car “incredibly difficult to drive”. Save for a slight wobble at Luffield and running fractionally wide in Stowe, it was a strong lap.
Race
Penalties: –
Positions gained/lost lap 1: DOWN 2
3 stops – medium/hard/hard/medium
The fact Russell started planning a one-stop and ended up three stopping after rear-left blistering showed up early in his third stint tells you how tough the race was.
He did at least pull off a bold overtaking move on team-mate Latifi on the opening lap through Maggots/Becketts, but his race pace was defined by tyre trouble.
VERDICT: Superb in qualifying and drove well enough in the race despite being hobbled by blistering.
