Australian GP 2019: Driver ratings

Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport:
Lewis Hamilton: 7,5 It was a great start for the Mercedes team, with a pole position for Lewis and a victory + fastest lap for Valtteri. Lewis got off to a slow start which possible cost him a shot on the race win. Even though, he did well and managed to fend off a charging Max Verstappen with ease.

Valtteri Bottas: 8,5 What a way to start the season. In no way, his performance can be compared to any of his performances last season. His start was just great and managed to pull a gap lap-by-lap and never was in any threat by any driver.

Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow:
Sebastian Vettel: 6,5 His qualifying was the most he could wish for, as the Mercedes guys were just way too quick. In the race, they gambled with an early stop, which eventually lost him P3 to Max Verstappen. His team might have cost him a couple of points and it could have been even more, if Charles was allowed to attack him.

Charles Leclerc: 6,5 He did what is expected of him. Grab lots of points and help the team. The team might have made a big mistake by not pitting him in the closing laps of the race, chasing a possible fastest lap for another point, but that lies on his team and not Charles. He went a little wide through turn 1 and spun in practice, but that is something to be expected for someone with just over 1 season of F1 experience.

Aston Martin Red Bull Racing Honda:
Max Verstappen: 8 He kept going on the high note he finished last season on. Qualified his car on P4, beating Leclerc in the proces, and managed to grab the last podium spot from Vettel. The team seemed to struggle in qualifying, but Verstappen took the best out of it. He might have been able to attack Lewis, but he seems to have matured and knows you will championships by consistency, instead of having highs and lows.

Pierre Gasly: 5 Pierre hasn't had the start we all hoped for. After 2 incidents in winter testing, he dropped in Q1 (by not being send out to improve his time) and only managed to finish P11, being stuck behind Kvyat for most of the race. I did not expect him to be on the same level of Max yet, but it was a little disappointing seeing him outside of the points. Melbourne might be difficult to overtake on, but whereas he couldn't, Max managed to overtake Sebastian by the 2 DRS zones on start/finish and after turn 2.

Renault F1 Team:
Nico Hulkenberg: 7,5 A strong result for the Hulk. Just missed out of Q3, but made up for it by scoring a solid P7. He scored some solid points for his team, although I'm not too sure Renault is the fourth team in line, to be fair. So his P7

Daniel Ricciardo: 5,5 What a horrible weekend for Daniel. Having his home race ruined after just 5 seconds, is just heart-breaking. He did not manage to qualify for Q3 and eventually retired in the race. Not the start he must have hoped for with his new team.

Rich Energy Haas F1 Team:
Romain Grosjean: 7 A very strong weekend for Romain, which was ruined by (another) mistake during a pitstop. You'd say you would do anything to prevent it from happening, but in the end, let's hope the Haas team improves from it again and be competitive all-year long.

Kevin Magnussen: 7,8 A stroung result for K-Mag, finishing best of the rest in P6. He was the only non-top 3 driver to finish within the same lap of the leaders, which shows how quick those cars were (mainly Bottas, of course). It's good to see Haas at least managed to score a good chunk of points in Melbourne this year, after last years disaster.

Mclaren F1 Team:
Carlos Sainz Jr.: 6 A disappointing result in qualifying, combined with a retirement in the race. This was not the race weekend Carlos might have hoped for. It's hard to judge him just on those few laps, as his qualifying could also have been due to bad timing, being unlucky (with Kubica, for instance).

Lando Norris: 7 Very good job in qualifying, being in Q3 as the only rookie. He dropped down a little in the race, but I did not even expect points in his debut race. He needs to get some more experience on that part, but it was a good start of his F1 career.

Racing Point F1:
Sergio Perez: 6,5 A good Saturday, followed by a disappointing Sunday. He lost it strategy-wise, like some other drivers did, and it cost him a point-scoring start of the season.

Lance Stroll: 7 His race was a complete opposite from his teammate. He disappointed massively during qualifying, but managed to score a couple of points in his first race for Racing Point. Still not sure if he is any better than Ocon was, but I'll give him a chance to show what he's capable of.

Alfa Romeo Racing:
Kimi Räikkönen: 7,5 A strong start for Räikkönen and Alfa Romeo. Qualified with ease in the top 10 and might possibly have done better, if his brake duct wasn't covered, which forced him to pit. Still, on his age, he does a great job performing this well. And I really hope Alfa Romeo can make the same kind of improvements like Sauber did last year.

Antonio Giovinazzi: 6,5 A decent start of his first full-time season. I did not expect him to match Kimi and he did not. His race was affected by some damage on the car, although staying out that long on tires worn out that badly, didn't help either.

Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda:
Daniil Kvyat: 7 He was outqualified by his teammate, but drove a fine race, collecting one point in the proces. He seems to be more relaxed now, compared to 1,5 seasons ago. We still have to see how he will perform the next couple of races, but apart from one little moment with Stroll, I feel like he did a fine race.

Alexander Albon: 6,5 A strong performance from the biggest rookie of the rookies. He crashed his car in practice, but apart from that, a weekend without many problems. He outqualified Kvyat and performed decent in the race, just as I expected him to do.

Williams Racing:
Robert Kubica: 3 By far, the biggest disappointment last weekend. He was way off the pace throughout the entire weekend, hit the wall entering pit lane, hit the wall out of turn 10, broke his front wing on Gasly at the start and after that, drove a lost race. He seemed to struggle for pace in the race, although I'm not entirely sure if that's due to his handicap or perhaps of all the times he had to slow down for blue flags. But overall, it was just a disappointing weekend for him.

George Russell: 6 It is really hard to rate him. The team is just way too slow for him to show any of his talent, as his only reference now is teammate Kubica. And he won that by a mile. He did fine for his first race weekend, no massive errors from his side. It's just a shame that the F2 champion can't show his true potential in the car Williams provides him with.