F1 Driver Ratings: Italy 2018

An amazing race at Monza was won by Lewis Hamilton who came out on top after a brilliant battle with Kimi Raikkonen. It means Hamilton now has a 30 point lead over championship rival Sebastian Vettel, after Vettel could only finish 4th after facing backwards at turn four.

Valtteri Bottas took the third step of the podium after Max Verstappen’s five second time penalty for ‘causing a collision’.

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

2018 Italian Grand Prix – Autodromo Nazionale Monza

Lewis Hamilton: 10/10

Kimi Raikkonen: 9/10

Valtteri Bottas: 7/10

Sebastian Vettel: 5.5/10

Max Verstappen: 7/10

Esteban Ocon: 9/10

Sergio Perez: 8/10

Carlos Sainz: 8/10

Lance Stroll: 8.5/10

Sergey Sirotkin: 7.5/10

Charles Leclerc: 7/10

Stoffel Vandoorne: 6/10

Nico Hulkenberg: 7.5/10

Pierre Gasly: 7/10

Marcus Ericsson: 5.5/10

Kevin Magnussen: 6/10

RETIRED

Daniel Ricciardo: 7/10

Fernando Alonso: 7/10

Brendon Hartley: 6.5/10

Romain Grosjean: 9/10

It’s no surprise to see Lewis Hamilton take the highest rating of the week with the perfect score of 10/10. His drive was one of his best ever and I have no idea how he was able to stay within 1.5 seconds of Raikkonen for 40 odd laps without killing his tyres and to keep such a sustained pressure on for so long.

His braking was exceptional, especially into the first chicane. Even his qualifying lap was excellent and to get that close to the Ferraris was impressive. An incredible weekend for the championship leader.

I found it hard as to who would get the lowest rating. It ended up being Sebastian Vettel and Marcus Ericsson. Vettel should have won the race but he didn’t execute his qualifying well enough, his racecraft was poor on the opening lap and he didn’t show the pace I expected after his incident with Hamilton.

As for Ericsson, it was hard to judge his race because Sauber didn’t use the rear wing they wanted to for Saturday and Sunday after the spectacular accident that Ericsson suffered in Free Practice 2. Maybe I’ve been too harsh on him but it’s always hard to rate the midfield runners.