F1 Driver Ratings: Brazil 2018

Lewis Hamilton made it 50 wins in the turbo-hybrid era, albeit with a little bit of luck but he was in the right position at the right time to pounce on the race-defining incident between Max Verstappen and Esteban Ocon. Verstappen managed to still finish 2nd but he was on course for back to back victories until it all went wrong when Ocon tried to lap himself. More on that in a moment.

Kimi Raikkonen held off Daniel Ricciardo to take another podium while Valtteri Bottas and Sebastian Vettel struggled throughout the race. The result gave Mercedes a well deserved 5th consecutive constructors’ title.

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

2018 Brazilian Grand Prix – Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace

Lewis Hamilton: 8.5/10

Max Verstappen: 9/10

Kimi Raikkonen: 8/10

Daniel Ricciardo: 8/10

Valtteri Bottas: 6/10

Sebastian Vettel: 5.5/10

Charles Leclerc: 8.5/10

Romain Grosjean: 8/10

Kevin Magnussen: 7/10

Sergio Perez: 7.5/10

Brendon Hartley: 7/10

Carlos Sainz: 6.5/10

Pierre Gasly: 6/10

Esteban Ocon: 2.5/10

Stoffel Vandoorne: 7/10

Sergey Sirotkin: 6/10

Fernando Alonso: 5/10

Lance Stroll: 4.5/10

RETIRED

Nico Hulkenberg: 6/10

Marcus Ericsson: 7.5/10

This week I have given Max Verstappen the highest score (9) but nobody had a standout weekend in my opinion. I probably would have given Verstappen the perfect score or a 9.5 but he played his part in the incident that prevented him from winning the Grand Prix. He’s definitely not at fault but he should have been more careful and had he have been more aware the incident could have been avoided. Nevertheless, he went from 5th to 1st by making four genuine on track overtakes on both Ferrari and Mercedes cars. When was the last time somebody did that?

The Red Bull arguably has the worst engine in terms of power as well so Verstappen couldn’t just breeze past his four rivals – other than the Hamilton overtake. It is so hard to follow the car in front so closely through the infield section at Interlagos yet Verstappen used the kerbs to hook his car around the corner and somehow got on the power really early coming out of the final proper corner despite losing so much downforce from the car in front.

His overtake on Vettel into turn one was my personal favourite move. The 21-year-old was so deep on the brakes but managed to get the car turned in, forcing Vettel to give way.

Esteban Ocon takes his maiden lowest rating (from me anyway) after his silly move to try and unlap himself on Verstappen. The Frenchman was given a 10 second stop and go penalty, which is a fair call in my opinion. Ocon had just come out of the pits after a slow stop and was catching Verstappen, so decided to unlap himself. I can see why he wanted to do it – Ocon thought he was losing time so thought that overtaking Verstappen and trying to pull away was the right thing to do.

But, I think the Force India (albeit on new supersoft tyres) simply does not have the pace to gap a Red Bull. It was never going to happen. Verstappen would have started to pull away in a few laps anyway. Instead, Ocon went for a move down the inside at turn two after getting around the outside at turn one but it was always going to be risky, a risk not worth taking.

How often do you see someone trying to unlap themselves in F1? Hardly ever. If you are going to do it, do it in a safe place and make sure there is no risk because you don’t want to be interfering with someone who’s not in the same race as you; and Ocon was not in the same race as Verstappen at all. The responsibility is on the backmarker to make a safe pass. Forcing the leader to defend is already in the wrong.