F1 Driver Ratings: Japan 2018

Lewis Hamilton made it four victories in a row with a dominant display around the Suzuka International Circuit and can now clinch a 5th world championship at the next Grand Prix in Austin, Texas.

Valtteri Bottas held off Max Verstappen to take another second place with Verstappen himself in third. For Ferrari, it was a disastrous weekend and the championship is now over, only mathematics is keeping it alive.

As per usual, the order you see is the finishing order of the race.

2018 Japanese  Grand Prix – Suzuka International Racing Course

Lewis Hamilton: 9.5/10

Valtteri Bottas: 7.5/10

Max Verstappen: 8.5/10

Daniel Ricciardo: 8.5/10

Kimi Raikkonen: 7/10

Sebastian Vettel: 3.5/10

Sergio Perez: 9/10

Romain Grosjean: 8.5/10

Esteban Ocon: 8/10

Carlos Sainz: 8/10

Pierre Gasly: 8/10

Marcus Ericsson: 6.5/10

Brendon Hartley: 7/10

Fernando Alonso: 7/10

Stoffel Vandoorne: 5.5/10

Sergey Sirotkin: 6/10

Lance Stroll: 6/10

RETIRED

Charles Leclerc: 6/10

Nico Hulkenberg: 5.5/10

Kevin Magnussen: 3.5/10

The highest rating of the week (9.5) goes to the race winner, Lewis Hamilton. He continued his incredible form by topping FP1, FP2, FP3, taking pole position, leading all the laps and of course taking the win. Not much else to say really apart from, Hamilton somehow keeps finding new levels of brilliance and he fully deserves the championship this year.

Some may say that I have been very harsh by giving Sebastian Vettel and Kevin Magnussen a low rating of 3.5 but hear me out. I think Vettel had the worst weekend of his F1 career. His qualifying lap was very scruffy, even before he got to the Spoon Curve and he only managed to qualify in 9th place. Then, in the race he made a great start but then went for a move that was always going to be risky, especially against Max Verstappen.

Surely, a 4-time world champion should be able to see the risk vs reward when thinking about trying to overtake Max Verstappen, especially at a corner which isn’t the best overtaking spot on the track. The pressure is not only getting to the whole Ferrari team, but to Vettel as well and it’s showing up on track.

Meanwhile, Kevin Magnussen was unusually slow in qualifying and then made one of the worst “defensive” moves of the season in the race. It was very similar to what Verstappen did to Kimi Raikkonen at Spa in 2016, except this time Magnussen caused Charles Leclerc to run into the back of him, causing damage for Leclerc and a puncture for Magnussen. The Dane reacted to Leclerc and moved right in front of Leclerc stupidly late.

It was like moving into the fast lane on a motorway when you know there’s a car in the lane anyway and you choose to cut right in front of them. The FIA have to do something about blocking someone that late, if not then we will end up with another Mark Webber at Valencia flying through the air incident. It’s not the first time Magnussen has been this aggressive to others and there’s a line between hard racing and ridiculous moves at high speeds.