F1 Driver Ratings: Belgium 2019

Charles Leclerc won his maiden Formula One race at an emotional and slightly downbeat Belgian Grand Prix.

The young Ferrari driver held off a late charge from Lewis Hamilton to hold on to the lead whilst Valtteri Bottas took third place.

Sebastian Vettel played his part by holding Hamilton at bay for 4-5 crucial laps so Hamilton lost precious time rather than makings inroads into Leclerc’s lead as he got stuck behind the slippery Ferrari which dominated the straights. Vettel finished fourth and has now gone over a year since he last won a race.

Here’s the Driver Ratings and as always, the order below is the finishing order of the Grand Prix.

2019 Belgian Grand Prix – Spa-Francorchamps

Charles Leclerc: 9.5/10

Lewis Hamilton: 9/10

Valtteri Bottas: 7/10

Sebastian Vettel: 6/10

Alexander Albon: 8.5/10

Sergio Perez: 8/10

Daniil Kvyat: 9/10

Nico Hulkenberg: 7.5/10

Pierre Gasly: 7/10

Lance Stroll: 7/10

Lando Norris: 8.5/10

Kevin Magnussen: 7.5/10

Romain Grosjean: 6/10

Daniel Ricciardo: 7/10

George Russell: 6.5/10

Kimi Raikkonen: 7/10

Robert Kubica: 6/10

Antonio Giovinazzi: 3/10

Carlos Sainz: N/A

Max Verstappen: 3.5/10

Race winner, Charles Leclerc gets the highest rating for the Belgian Grand Prix. He was on it all weekend and his pole position lap was stunning with a huge 0.748 of a second back to second place teammate Vettel.

Leclerc managed the race perfectly, controlling his pace and keeping the tyres alive in both stints. This is something he has struggled a little with this year but when it mattered most, he executed beautifully.

Only a small mistake when he locked up going into Les Combes has cost him the perfect 10/10, other than that he was very impressive to keep his cool at the end of the race and to deliver Ferrari their first win in 2019.

Plenty of drivers suffered from bad luck throughout the weekend, most notably Carlos Sainz who was unable to put in a proper qualifying attempt due to a red flag at the end of Q1 and his race ended after just a few laps after suffering a suspected engine problem. It’s impossible to give him a rating so Sainz receives an N/A.

Antonio Giovinazzi gets the lowest ratings after throwing away what was actually a very good performance up until he post the car at Pouhon and crashed out of the race. Such a shame, as he came from the back up to seventh and was running alone and on for a good haul of points until the driver error.

Max Verstappen gets a low rating too. Belgium was probably Verstappen’s worst weekend of the season so far (although the bar is set very high) as he struggled with the car and never looked like he got on top of things.

For me, the turn one incident with Kimi Raikkonen was probably a racing incident but if I had to blame someone it would be Verstappen. It was remarkably similar to the same accident he had with the Ferrari drivers in 2016 and you would have thought he would have learnt from that mistake.

Another poor start meant he was trying to recover rather than make gains and it was little desperate to. The gamble didn’t work but equally Raikkonen could have been more aware of Verstappen potentially going for a move down the inside. 65/35 blame in favour of Verstappen as I see it.