F1 Driver Ratings: Austria 2020

The Driver Ratings are back! This series gives every driver a rating based on their performance in qualifying and the race.

Valtteri Bottas won a chaotic season opener at the Austrian Grand Prix, leading every lap and holding off teammate Lewis Hamilton to win his second race at the Red Bull Ring.

Charles Leclerc somehow got a lacklustre Ferrari into second place with Lando Norris taking his maiden Formula 1 podium with a phenomenal final two laps to get within five seconds of Lewis Hamilton who had a penalty.

As per usual, the order below is the finishing order of the race.

2020 Austrian Grand Prix – Red Bull Ring

Valtteri Bottas: 8.5/10

Charles Leclerc: 9/10

Lando Norris: 9/10

Lewis Hamilton: 6/10

Carlos Sainz: 7.5/10

Sergio Perez: 8/10

Pierre Gasly: 7.5/10

Esteban Ocon: 4.5/10

Antonio Giovinazzi: 6/10

Sebastian Vettel: 3.5/10

Nicholas Latifi: 4/10

RETIRED

Daniil Kvyat: 6.5/10

Alexander Albon: 7/10

Kimi Raikkonen: 7/10

George Russell: 7.5/10

Romain Grosjean: 5/10

Kevin Magnussen: 6/10

Lance Stroll: 7/10

Daniel Ricciardo: 8/10

Max Verstappen: 8/10

The first race is always tough to rate because we do not know the true pecking order, especially in the midfield. Teammate comparisons, seeing if strategy helped or hindered a driver, race pace are the things I mainly look out fore before giving a rating.

This week I have given Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris the highest ratings.

Leclerc was outstanding. Ferrari are around 15KPH slower in the speed traps on a track which has a lot of full throttle sections.

The 2017 Formula 2 champion squeezed into Q3 before managing to qualify seventh in what looks like the fifth fastest car. In the race, Leclerc was bold and decisive with fantastic overtakes on Norris and Sergio Perez to rescue a remarkable second place.

Ferrari may not have too many podiums this year so Leclerc maximised and took valuable points – a champion’s drive.

Norris was very impressive too and has silenced any critics who thought he would be outclassed by Carlos Sainz this season.

With a huge amount of pressure, Norris delivered in the final few laps including the fastest lap of the Grand Prix on the final lap which ultimately earned him the podium position by less than two tenths of a second.

Sainz showed good race pace too but Norris putting in a brilliant qualifying lap set him up to take advantage of the chaos the unfolded.

At the other end of the scale we find Sebastian Vettel. It was a nightmare weekend for the German.

Unable to get into the final part of qualifying, yet another spin and worst of all his pace after the spin was poor.

You would expect Vettel to climb his way through the field easily but he was even struggling to get by the Williams of George Russell at one point.

Vettel said he was happy to only spin once and he was very down all weekend. If this if his final year in F1, it could be a long one and the four-time champion might bow out on a very big low.