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Edd Straw rates the grid for the 2020 Austrian Grand Prix, which kicked off the Formula 1 season in dramatic style on Sunday after a long wait for on-track action.
There were some unlikely stars and some big-name question marks which Edd’s rating reflects. And if you want to debate any of his scorings, you can!
A live driver ratings Q&A will take place here with Edd at 1.30pm UK time today. To get involved, leave your question in the comments at the bottom and Edd will be here to join the debate from 1.30pm.
Started: 5th
Finished: 4th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 105
Gap to team-mate: +0.012s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.095s
Hamilton did have the speed to outpace Bottas, but had an untidy session culminating in the loss of his first Q3 time then a belated grid drop for failing to slow for yellows in admittedly confusing circumstances.
Race
Penalties: +3 grid drop (yellow flags), +5s race (Albon collision)
Positions gained/lost lap 1: 0
Strategy: 1 stop: soft/hard
Hamilton’s first stint went well and he was able to pick off Norris and Albon then close on Bottas. He looked threatening at the start of the second stint but repeated warnings about kerbs blunted his challenge until his late clash with Albon at Turn 4, which dropped him to fourth as Bottas being in the way meant he couldn’t press on any further in the ‘virtual’ battle with Leclerc and Norris.
Verdict: The underlying pace was there but the uncharacteristic rough edges were too costly.
Started: 1st
Finished: 1st
Qualifying
Practice laps: 97
Gap to team-mate: -0.012s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.039s
After struggling a little in practice Bottas really picked up the pace in qualifying. But he was fortunate to get away without his off exiting Turn 4 in Q3 costing him pole position, albeit with the added bonus that it led to his main title rival being hit with a grid penalty.
Race
Penalties: None
Positions gained/lost lap 1: 0
Strategy: 1 stop: soft/hard
Bottas ticked all the boxes during the race, holding the lead at the start and through a trio of safety car restarts and absorbing the pressure that Hamilton put on him early in the second stint while managing the car problems. Other than the final few laps before the first safety car, when he started losing significant time to Hamilton, everything looked perfectly under control.
Verdict: Hit his marks perfectly in a complicated race but he rode his luck to get away with the Q3 error.
Started: 11th
Finished: 10th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 100
Gap to team-mate: +0.165s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.153s
Vettel struggled with oversteer and never looked like matching his team-mate’s pace, resulting in an avoidable Q2 exit after a final lap that was a little ragged in a few key corners.
Race
Penalties: None
Positions gained/lost lap 1: Up 1
Strategy: 2 stops: medium/hard/soft
Having passed Ricciardo at Turn 4 on the opening lap to run 20th, Vettel continued to struggle with the rear end and admitted he was fortunate not to spin more than once after a few lairy moments, but hitting Sainz was a rookie error that ruined his race.
Verdict: Unconvincing, showing neither the confidence in the car nor the racecraft to match Leclerc.
Started: 7th
Finished: 2nd
Qualifying
Practice laps: 96
Gap to team-mate: -0.165s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.025
He probably overachieved in qualifying in terms of position with a lap time that was close to the ultimate the car could achieve, partly with the help of yellow flags, but had a decisive advantage over Vettel in the battle to escape Q2.
Race
Penalties: None
Positions gained/lost lap 1: 0
Strategy: 2 stops: soft/hard/medium
Leclerc held seventh at the start and was handed two places in the race by the two Red Bulls hitting trouble. But it was after the second safety car that his race really came alive, making opportunistic passes on Norris and Perez to be in a position to earn up second thanks to Hamilton’s penalty.
Verdict: Drove beautifully in a mediocre Ferrari and turned fifth into second with his incisive passes on Perez and Norris.
Started: 2nd
Finished: DNF
Qualifying
Practice laps: 98
Gap to team-mate: -0.391s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.083s
Achieved the best possible result by setting the third-fastest time, outpacing Albon by four tenths albeit with the advantage of aero upgrades his team-mate didn’t have. His medium-shod pace in Q2 was particularly valuable, allowing him to start the race on mediums.
Race
Penalties: None
Positions gained/lost lap 1: 0
Strategy: 0 stops: medium
He was in roughly the right place in second and keeping Bottas in sight when an electrical issue put him out of the race. There’s every chance he could have won given the troubles of the Mercedes drivers.
Verdict: Did everything he could to stay in victory contention before his early retirement.
Started: 4th
Finished: 13th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 98
Gap to team-mate: +0.391s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.002s
Albon was frustrated with his performance in qualifying and surprised to come out of it with fifth as, despite the fact he was running a different spec to Verstappen, he didn’t get the best from the car.
Race
Penalties: None
Positions gained/lost lap 1: 0
Strategy: 2 stops: soft/medium/soft
He was keeping Perez covered in the battle for third when the second safety car hit and he pitted for softs. This gave Albon a shot at victory and his incisive pass on Perez for third meant he had a clear run at the Mercedes drivers, only to spin after being hit by Hamilton at Turn 4.
Verdict: Slower than Verstappen even allowing for the car spec difference but while unlucky to be hit by Hamilton was that move really the percentage play?
Started: 3rd
Finished: 3rd
Qualifying
Practice laps: 101
Gap to team-mate: -0.345s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.000s
A mistake on his used-tyre run in Q3 dented his confidence but he nailed his final run to take an unexpected fourth on the grid, the best result he could have achieved in qualifying.
Race
Penalties: None
Positions gained/lost lap 1: 0
Strategy: 2 stops: soft/hard/medium
Norris kept Perez at arm’s length in the first stint having inevitably been passed by Albon, only to be passed by the medium-shod Racing Point driver after the first safety car when on hards. His attempt to repass Perez on lap 64 allowed Leclerc to overtake him around the outside into Turn 4, but a surprise late-braking move on the Racing Point gave him fourth place. But he nailed one of the great last laps to set fastest lap and steal third place from Hamilton by two tenths.
Verdict: Brilliant qualifying and a mostly superb race, particularly that stellar last lap, but could have finished second.
Started: 8th
Finished: 5th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 102
Gap to team-mate: +0.345s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.098s
Sainz wasn’t as convincing as Norris, admitting that he was struggling a little for confidence in the car in the faster corners. But he was denied a chance to show what he could really do on fresh softs in Q3 by the yellow flag for Bottas’s off.
Race
Penalties: None
Positions gained/lost lap 1: None
Strategy: 2 stops: soft/hard/medium
Sainz held eighth early on and had one of those races where he gave nothing away and picked up the pieces after those ahead hit trouble, gaining two places to Red Bull’s problems then one more to Perez’s penalty – although he also came very close to passing Norris in the closing stages before being conveniently told to watch the engine cooling.
Verdict: Didn’t hit the peaks of Norris but executed a characteristically effective race drive.
Started: 10th
Finished: DNF
Qualifying
Practice laps: 78
Gap to team-mate: -0.620s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.024s
The Australian was denied the chance to set a serious time in Q3 by yellow flags, which is a shame because he had already showed himself capable of dragging some superb times out of the Renault. His Q2 lap, aided by a big tow, hinted he could have been capable of as high as the third row by himself.
Race
Penalties: None
Positions gained/lost lap 1: Down 1
N0 stops: soft
Slipped to 11th on the first lap after Vettel slipped past him on the inside line at a congested Turn 4, but held what became 10th position after Verstappen’s retirement until an overheating engine put him out of the race after 17 laps.
Verdict: Very fast in a tricky car, but bad luck meant you had to look hard to spot it.
Started: 14th
Finished: 8th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 75
Gap to team-mate: +0.620s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.018s
While Ocon didn’t look to have Ricciardo’s pace, the lack of a tow in Q2 exaggerated the gap. But 14th place was disappointing given he should have been ahead of the AlphaTauris.
Race
Penalties: None
Positions gained/lost lap 1: Down 2
1 stop: medium/hard
The early stages of the race didn’t go well as he was shuffled down to 15th behind Giovinazzi before passing him using the DRS on the run to Turn 4 on lap 15. And that was pretty much where he stayed, relying on problems for others to gain places – although he did make Kvyat unhappy along the way by pushing him wide while holding onto a place he’d gained through the AlphaTauri driver
Verdict: Solid at best for a driver who is far better than this. A weekend for shaking the rust off.
Started: 12th
Finished: 7th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 95
Gap to team-mate: -0.126s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.045s
The AlphaTauri wasn’t a Q3 car, but Gasly’s pace meant that he flirted with making it and he had a clear advantage over Kvyat, putting the car a row higher than it really should have been.
Race
Penalties: None
Positions gained/lost lap 1: 0
Strategy: 1 stop: medium/hard
Gasly’s race was a relatively straightforward one, which is no bad thing given the chaos going on around him. From 12th on the first lap he finished seventh having gained places to Verstappen, Ricciardo, Stroll, Vettel and Albon suffering various problems but did come close to retiring with a brake problem that cleared itself.
Verdict: Excellent in qualifying, faultless in the race and earned the best possible results in both.
Started: 13th
Finished: 12th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 77
Gap to team-mate: +0.126s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.247s
Kvyat always looked the slower of the AlphaTauri drivers and that proved to be the case in qualifying, although the final margin wasn’t too big and ensured he was ahead of Ocon’s Renault.
Race
Penalties: None
Positions gained/lost lap 1: Down 2
Strategy: 2 stops: medium/hard/soft
Kvyat slipped to 15th on the opening lap behind Magnussen and Giovinazzi, who he picked off later in the stint. Retirements got him into the top 10, but after being frustrated by being forced wide at Turn 6 by Ocon late on, he was passed by Giovinazzi and Vettel, forcefully, in the closing stages and was 11th when he suffered a failure in the left-rear corner. This was potentially a legacy of Ocon forcing him onto the kerbs.
Verdict: Lacked the edge of pace Gasly had, which would have cost him a points finish even without his late retirement.
Started: 6th
Finished: 6th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 100
Gap to team-mate: -0.161s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.198s
Only sixth having had to set his Q3 time without the assistance of a tow, but the car didn’t quite have the pace in qualifying trim to have beaten Norris. He was also unlucky as he set an identical time to Albon, but was classified behind the Red Bull driver thanks to setting the time second.
Race
Penalties: 5s (pitlane speeding)
Positions gained/lost lap 1: 0
Strategy: 1 stop: soft/medium
Held sixth at the start, which became fifth when Verstappen retired, but didn’t have the pace to threaten Norris’s McLaren during the first stint. Switching to mediums under the first safety car when everyone else took hards changed that and he soon passed Norris and set about menacing Albon. The late flurry of safety cars didn’t go well for Perez as he was hit by a pitlane speeding penalty and also passed on track by Leclerc and Norris.
Verdict: Not a bad weekend’s work, but there was a podium there for the taking that went begging.
Started: 9th
Finished: DNF
Qualifying
Practice laps: 101
Gap to team-mate: +0.161s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.036s
As usual, Stroll wasn’t able to match Perez in qualifying but made it through to Q3, where he set his time out-of-phase with the rest and without the benefit of a tow. But he also believes conditions went away from a car a little at the end of qualifying.
Race
Penalties: None
Positions gained/lost lap 1: 19th
Strategy: 0 stops: soft
Stroll held position early on but barely had time to settle in before engine problems started to set in. His laptimes dropped off dramatically as a result and he was shuffled out of the points before retiring.
Verdict: Did nothing wrong in the race but, as usual, the qualifying pace needs to be better.
Started: 19th
Finished: DNF
Qualifying
Practice laps: 91
Gap to team-mate: +0.049s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.067s
Seemed the second-best Alfa Romeo driver heading into qualifying and so it proved, although he was closer to Giovinazzi than expected thanks to the Italian going off on his final lap.
Race
Penalties: None
Positions gained/lost lap 1: 2
Strategy: 2 stops: medium/hard/soft
Had a strong first stint and was ordered past Giovinazzi before making his stop and ran behind Ocon after that. The strategy backfired as the safety car was then deployed, allowing his team-mate to jump back ahead. That started the unravelling of his race, culminating in shedding his front-right after his second stop while still in with a shot of a point.
Verdict: His single-lap pace was nothing special, but the race was better if dogged by ill-luck.
Started: 18th
Finished: 9th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 89
Gap to team-mate: -0.049s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.000s
Had a shot of making Q2 but a visit to the gravel at Turn 4 on his final Q1 lap cost him, although he still outpaced Raikkonen having looked faster throughout practice.
Race
Penalties: None
Positions gained/lost lap 1: 4
Strategy: 2 stops: medium/hard/soft
A good first lap gained him four positions thanks to some canny car placement and, with the Alfa Romeo a little stronger on race than qualifying pace, he capitalised on retirements and others’ problems to take ninth place. But he did it the hard way after taking the final restart last, overtaking Vettel along the way.
Verdict: Qualifying could have been better, but he executed the race well and earned the best possible result.
Started: 15th
Finished: DNF
Qualifying
Practice laps: 74
Gap to team-mate: -0.070s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.010s
With the three slowest teams forming a class of their own at the back in qualifying, only one driver could reach Q2 and that was Grosjean, who took the best possible qualifying position.
Race
Penalties: None
Positions gained/lost lap 1: down 3
Strategy: 1 stop: medium/hard
Grosjean’s race was doomed before it started when problems with the front wing and floor started to manifest themselves even before the race. With the added trouble of brake and cooling problems, he was on a hiding to nothing and had a couple of offs before his inevitable retirement.
Verdict: Qualified well and despite a ragged race, the car problems at least partly explain his woes.
Started: 16th
Finished: DNF
Qualifying
Practice laps: 89
Gap to team-mate: +0.070s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.000s
Ended up behind team-mate Grosjean in qualifying, although he wasn’t helped by compromised track temperatures thanks to out-lap traffic.
Race
Penalties: None
Positions gained/lost lap 1: up 3
Strategy: 0 stops: medium
Until suffering a brake failure, Magnussen drove a strong race and was holding 11th, just ahead of Ocon, when he retired. Considering the pace of the car that was a good effort.
Verdict: Raced very well while the car lasted, laying the groundwork for a potential run at the points.
Started: 20th
Finished: 11th
Qualifying
Practice laps: 82
Gap to team-mate: +0.590s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.000s
A crash in FP3 wasn’t the ideal preparation for his first qualifying session, so it’s perhaps unsurprising that he was well off team-mate Russell’s pace.
Race
Penalties: None
Positions gained/lost lap 1: 0
2 stops: medium/hard/soft
Had a lonely race at the back of the field, but his pace stacked up well enough compared to Russell and, by keeping out of trouble, he ended up just one more retirement away from a debut points finish.
Verdict: Sensible, unspectacular, solid on an occasion that demanded exactly this approach.
Started: 17th
Finished: DNF
Qualifying
Practice laps: 88
Gap to team-mate: -0.590s
Gap to ‘ideal’ lap: +0.109s
Came close to reaching Q2, which was possible with a perfect session but he didn’t get a tow on his final lap, hence the big gap to his theoretical best lap. Still came close to splitting the Haas drivers.
Race
Penalties: None
Positions gained/lost lap 1: Down 2
1 stop: medium/hard
The Williams didn’t have the race pace that was hoped for, meaning Russell was struggling to stay on terms with his immediate rivals. But before he retired with a loss of fuel pressure, he held off the recovering Vettel and was in the mix for a maiden points finish.
Verdict: Got the most out of an improved but still limited car and bossed his team-mate.
