F1 Driver Ratings: USA 2019

Lewis Hamilton became a six-time Formula One World Championship on Sunday whilst Valtteri Bottas won the US Grand Prix.

Mercedes have now won the last four races and continue to show why they have won six consecutive drivers’ and constructors’ titles.

Max Verstappen worried the Silver Arrows throughout the Grand Prix but did not quite have the pace to challenge for victory.

Meanwhile, Ferrari suffered a horrible day with Sebastian Vettel retiring from a strange suspension failure and Charles Leclerc having abysmal pace compared to the front three.

This came after not starting on pole position for the first time since the summer break, and Leclerc having to revert to an older power unit due to his spec-three power unit breaking down in practice three.

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

2019 US Grand Prix – Circuit of the Americas

Valtteri Bottas: 9/10

Lewis Hamilton: 8/10

Max Verstappen: 8.5/10

Charles Leclerc: 7/10

Alexander Albon: 7/10

Daniel Ricciardo: 9/10

Lando Norris: 8.5/10

Carlos Sainz: 8/10

Nico Hulkenberg: 7.5/10

Sergio Perez: 7.5/10

Kimi Raikkonen: 6.5/10

Daniil Kvyat: 4/10

Lance Stroll: 4/10

Antonio Giovinazzi: 5/10

Romain Grosjean: 5.5/10

Pierre Gasly: 7/10

George Russell: 6/10

Kevin Magnussen: 6/10

Robert Kubica: 4.5/10

Sebastian Vettel: 7.5/10

Valtteri Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo get the highest ratings this week. Bottas converted an excellent pole position into a very good race win which saw him close down a ten second gap to teammate Hamilton and make an overtake with a handful of laps to go.

It wasn’t a special drive because he really should have won with the strategy he had (in my opinion the two-stop strategy was a lot easier to work with compared to a one-stop strategy) but it was what you would expect from Bottas and why he is capable of taking multiple victories each season.

Ricciardo had one of his strongest races of the year with a sensational sixth place to finish ahead of the McLaren drivers.

The Renault driver, had a stonking opening lap to put himself in a position to contend for ‘best of the rest’ before making a one-stop strategy work with superb tyre management. This is the Ricciardo that we have not been able to see too often in 2019 but he made things work very well on Sunday.

Elsewhere, the usual drivers of Lance Stroll and Robert Kubica lacked general pace compared to their respective teammates and Daniil Kvyat found himself in the wars again, losing another points paying position due to colliding with Sergio Perez.

It was a very clumsy manouver from Kvyat and a sign of the Kvyat we 2-3 years ago. Red Bull and Helmut Marko will not be impressed despite a strong first half of the season.