Australian Grand Prix driver ratings

Valtteri Bottas

Bottas was only just edged out in qualifying by teammate Lewis Hamilton, but made amends immediately on Sunday. After jumping straight into the lead of the race, Bottas was out of sight, bringing home his first win since Abu Dhabi, 2017. 

Rating: 9.0

Lewis Hamilton

Hamilton produced another masterclass in qualifying. After missing out during his opening run, he produced the goods in the final moment to take another pole position. However, everyone walks away from the weekend praising the other Mercedes driver, as Hamilton had no answer for the Finn during the race.

Rating: 7.0
 

Max Verstappen

It was a beautiful start to the 2019 season for Verstappen, as he managed to split the Ferraris in qualifying. Nursing his tyres well during the place and working his way onto the podium gets our applause - congratulations to Red Bull-Honda! 

Rating: 9.0

Sebastian Vettel

It looked like Vettel gave it his all throughout the weekend, but simply didn't have the car to compete with Mercedes. A disappointing weekend for Ferrari, who will be hoping for better things when it arrives at Bahrain in two weeks' time.

Rating: 7.0
 

Charles Leclerc

The pressure was on Leclerc's shoulder's throughout his opening weekend as a Ferrari driver. The Monegasque racer made a number of on-track errors, but at least indicated in the latter stages of the race that he has the pace to compete with Vettel. In what is set to be a transitional year for him, Melbourne could have been much worse.

Rating: 7.0
 

Kevin Magnussen 

Magnussen was disappointed to be out-done by his teammate in qualifying but the Dane bounced back in the race, heading the mid-field pack and enjoying a nice scrap with Nico Hulkenberg in the race. Ultimately, Magnussen did what he needed to do.

Rating: 8.0

Nico Hulkenberg

It's a bit difficult to see where Renault is at the moment, but a double Q2 dropout was disappointing for them. For Hulkenberg to get the better of Ricciardo on Saturday was admirable though, and progressing up to 7th will have pleased his bosses on Sunday.

Rating: 8.0

Kimi Raikkonen 

It was a rather quiet, but good weekend from Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn qualified just inside the top ten in qualifying, and was substantially quicker than teammate Giovinazzi. He went on to finish in eighth place.

Rating: 7.5

Lance Stroll 

Lance Stroll was unfortunate to not be able to show his hand in qualifying after being held up, but he had a much better Sunday. He raced fantastically to score two points on his debut for Racing Point, in what was the best performance we have seen from Stroll in a long time. 

Rating: 8.5

Daniil Kvyat

Daniil Kvyat looked to have moved on from the kind of driving that gave him the nickname "the torpedo", showing good pace in the race. However, desperation crept in when he came up against Stroll, and he went for a move up the inside and lost a large chunk of time when he couldn't make the corner.

Rating: 6.5

Pierre Gasly 

It's not the way he would have liked his Red Bull campaign to kick off, but a Q1 dropout on Saturday and no points on Sunday marked a harrowing weekend for the Frenchman, who will be out to prove his worth alongside Verstappen.

Rating: 6.0

Lando Norris

Lando Norris was arguably the star performer in qualifying, but his race was compromised as he was stuck behind Giovinazzi for a large number of laps. He did, however, keep his cool, and when the Italian eventually lost all grip in his tyres he slipped up the inside at turn three.

Rating: 7.5

Sergio Perez

Sergio Perez didn't have an amazing qualifying session, just making it into top ten. He then didn't have race pace of his less-experienced teammate in what was a disappointing afternoon for the Mexican.

Sergio Perez: 5.5

Alexander Albon

Alex Albon had a bit of a messy weekend, where he crashed in practice and then had a scary moment in the race where he also lacked the pace of Kvyat. He did however have a good qualifying, beating the Russian at his first Grand Prix weekend.

Rating: 5.5

Antonio Giovinazzi

Antonio Giovinazzi didn't have the ideal start to his first full season in Formula 1, as he was quite far off Raikkonen in qualifying. He acted as a blockade in the race, showing impressive defensive driving to keep Lando Norris behind for a large part of the race.

Rating: 6.0

George Russell 

We can't really give a rating to either of the Williams drivers, as they are sadly too slow to be compared to other teams. This means can only be compared to Kubica, and he came out of this battle on top by a hefty margin.

Rating: N/A
 

Robert Kubica

It was not a good weekend for Robert Kubica, who touched the wall in both practice and qualifying. He was also unlucky to collect Daniel Ricciardo's front wing in the race, so overall not the comeback race the Pole was hoping for. In saying that, the ordeal Kubica has gone through to return has been extraordinary, so in that respect - well done Robert!

Rating: N/A

Romain Grosjean

It was a beautiful Saturday display from Romain Grosjean, who set a fantastic Q3 lap to head the midfield pack by some margin. He was on for some strong points before an issue with his pit stop forced him to retire from the Grand Prix.

Rating: 8.0

Daniel Ricciardo

Daniel Ricciardo was out-done by teammate Nico Hulkenberg in qualifying but didn't get the chance to bounce back during the race. A gutter ditch wrecked his race on the run into Turn 1, capping off an exhausting week for the Australian.

Rating: N/A

Carlos Sainz

It was an unlucky weekend for Carlos Sainz, as he couldn't set a representative lap time in qualifying and then retired early on in the race thanks to a fire caused by his MGU-K.

Rating: N/A