Italian Grand Prix driver ratings

  • Published on 11 Sep 2019 11:11
  • 5
  • By: Fergal Walsh & Harry Mattocks

Charles Leclerc

It was a dream come through for Leclerc on Sunday, who found himself winning Ferrari's home race, and taking his second. The 21-year-old is starting to shine through at the Scuderia outfit, casting away some doubt that lingers over the decision of Ferrari to promote him so early.

Rating: 10.0


Valtteri Bottas

Bottas once again showed strong pace in qualifying and was flying at the end of the race, before a minor mistake a Turn 1 wrecked his chances of taking his first win since Baku earlier this year. 

Rating: 8.5


Lewis Hamilton

Much like Bottas, Hamilton had a costly mistake which not only ended his thrilling fight with Leclerc, but also saw him concede second place to Bottas.

Rating: 8.5


Daniel Ricciardo

Ricciardo enjoyed a weekend that couldn't have gone much better, - qualifying fifth and finishing fourth, taking his best result of the season so far for Renault. 

Rating: 10.0


Nico Hulkenberg

As he continues to work out his future in F1, Hulkenberg displayed a strong drive to peak the interest of potential suitors. Although he didn't have the pace to match Ricciardo, crossing the line in fifth capped off a strong weekend for Hulkenberg.

Rating: 9.0
 

Alexander Albon

Albon is still warming into the Red Bull team after his mid-season promotion, but still showed some impressive racecraft at Monza. However, he did his race no favours when he ended up in the gravel while battling Carlos Sainz, and ended up coming home behind the two Renaults. 

Rating: 7.5


Sergio Perez

Perez started from the back row alongside Max Verstappen on Sunday due to engine penalties but climbed his way to seventh place when the chequered flag fell - another fantastic outing for the Mexican who continues to prove his worth to Racing Point, having just committed to a long-term contract. 

Rating: 10.0


Max Verstappen

Starting from the rear of the field, Verstappen's race was always going to be difficult. However, it got tougher after getting caught up in a Turn 1 accident. After making an extra pit stop, the Red Bull driver managed to get himself back into the points, pulling the curtain on a strong race amid difficult circumstances.

Rating: 8.5


Antonio Giovinazzi

After the lows of the Belgian GP, where he crashed out on the final lap when he was on the verge of points, Giovinazzi made no mistake at his home race to claim two points for himself and Alfa Romeo as he eyes up another deal with the Italian team.

Rating: 9.0


Lando Norris

Also a driver to take penalties, Norris managed to secure a point for McLaren on an all-round difficult weekend for the Woking squad. Managed to keep Pierre Gasly behind him, following some on-track overtakes to move up the order.

Rating: 8.5


Pierre Gasly

Gasly was unlucky to get caught up in the incident at the Ascari chicane, as up until then he had been having a strong race. The Frenchman was running inside the points after making up a few places at the start of the race.

Rating: 8.0


Lance Stroll

On a weekend where he finally made a Q3 appearance for Racing Point, Stroll had good pace and was running well inside the points. However, after being span around by Sebastian Vettel the Canadian was handed a drive-through penalty for the dangerous manner in which he returned to the circuit. 

Rating: 8.5


Sebastian Vettel

Vettel showed some very strong pace in qualifying, but was unable to show this on the last run in Q3 as he didn't make it across the line before the chequered flag was waved. However, his race can only be described as an amateur performance. The German was running well in fourth place when he span at the Ascari chicane, all on his own. Then, when returning to the circuit he collided with Stroll, earning himself a ten-second stop-go penalty. This was all on a weekend where his teammate Charles Leclerc excelled in front of the Tifosi.

Rating: 4.5


George Russell

Russell is quietly becoming one of the standout performers of 2019, as the current Formula 2 champion finished nearly half a minute ahead of his teammate. He had good race pace, and it is clear to see that Williams are improving.

Rating: 9.0


Kimi Raikkonen

It was not a good weekend for Raikkonen, as the Alfa Romeo driver crashed twice over the weekend. Due to his qualifying crash, the Iceman started the race from the pit lane but could not make up many positions during the race. This was mostly due to an error from the team, as he was dealt an extremely harsh penalty for not starting the race on his qualifying tyres.

Rating: 6.0


Romain Grosjean

If Grosjean wants to keep his seat at Haas for 2020, he will need some seriously impressive results in the upcoming races. This is because the Frenchman failed to make it out of Q1, and then span during the race. This forced him to make an early pit stop on a weekend where the car had a chance at scoring points.

Rating: 5.5


Robert Kubica 

Kubica will have a very hard time convincing Williams to retain him for 2020 given his performances this season. In qualifying, there was the standard half a second deficit to his teammate George Russell, and by the end of the race there was half a minute between them. The Pole was running ahead of Russell until a slow first pit stop, but a lock up meant that he had to pit again later in the race.

Rating: 5.0


Kevin Magnussen

Magnussen performed well over the course of the weekend, setting two near-identical lap times in qualifying which suggests he was at the limit of what the car was capable of. In the race, he was running just inside the points when his car gave up the ghost and he was forced to retire.

Rating: 7.5


Daniil Kvyat

If he keeps performing at this level, Kvyat is going to make Red Bull's 2020 driver decision difficult. The Russian has been impressive all season long, and he was running in P7 and on for some good points when his engine went up in smoke. 

Rating: 8.5


Carlos Sainz

Sainz suffered with some of Lando Norris' bad luck of late, with a loose wheel causing putting an early end to what was a good race for the Spaniard. He seemed to have slightly stronger pace than Norris in the race, and was just about keeping pace with Nico Hulkenberg in P6.

Rating: 8.5

Replies (5)

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  • It is quite clear that Vettel does not get the support he needs from the team. Q3 was not his own mistake, it was the team and Leclerc that let him down. His final radio, when he said "thank you, thank you", is absolutely suggestive of what was going on and how he felt.

    He feels betrayed and this is an unacceptable way to treat a four-time champion. It was only natural that he would make a grave mistake (although he is a four-time champion!). We all knew that, how could Ferrari not know that?

    I think Ferrari have started the same old Italian pettinness. They did not want Leclerc to lose the pole and they sacrificed Vettel because they wanted to please the tifosi. Rating Vettel is completely ungrounded.

    • + 2
    • Sep 11 2019 - 13:45
    • JuJuHound

      Posts: 352

      It was the worst performance of Seb since Germany 2018. However during this time he made some more errors including crashes (Italy, Japan, USA).
      In Italy he lost qualies, he lost the race quite fast. This rating is complete, it says what we saw. For sure we do not want to see Seb acting like this but for sure he doesn't feel the car and he is losing with younger driver (same when Ricciardo joined RBR back in 2014) so it will be hard to stand up since upcoming races won't be strong on Ferraris side.
      After qualies he was mad at the team so he ran to RBR motorhome to start some rumours. But I doubt RBR wants him back having Max now.

      • + 0
      • Sep 11 2019 - 14:09
    • Yes and No. "It was only natural that he would make a grave mistake" -- This is the problem with Vettel. But, Ferrari needs to support him best during this time of hardship. It's not like they have many other capable choices if he pulls the plug.

      • + 0
      • Sep 11 2019 - 16:17
    • The rating is harsh, sure. However, to suggest that Ferrari is actually favoring Vettel over Leclerc is preposterous. The opposite has been true all season long. It doest seem clear that Leclerc sort of messed Seb's quali, but from the comment by Binotto, it seems that the team didn't take that mistake lightly saying that with Charles win everything was forgiven.

      • + 0
      • Sep 12 2019 - 03:52
  • I wouldn't rate Vettel this poorly, since most of his weekend was okayish. Nowhere near Leclerc, but okay. It really was the race where he fucked up. At the very least he didn't crash out lap 1 in an unnecessary race incident... I'd personally rate him about 5. And I'd probably actually bump up Hammy 0.5, since it was poor strategy from Merc' that cost him (the tyres weren't quite off the cliff, but he ran them to the very edge). Max I'd bump down to maybe 8. So overall pretty small adjustments.

    • + 1
    • Sep 11 2019 - 16:25

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