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There were plenty of contenders for the ‘best performance’ title on an exciting British Grand Prix weekend as drivers faced a real mix of weather conditions.
But who came out on top in Ed Straw’s Formula 1 Drivers’ Ranking this week? Find out more below:
How do categories work? The 20 drivers will be ranked from best to worst in each Grand Prix weekend. This will be based on a whole range of criteria, from speed and racing skill to consistency and whether they have made key mistakes. A key consideration will be how close each driver is to unlocking the car’s performance potential.
It is important to note that this reflects performance over the entire weekend, with qualifying being the “lap zero” of the race and key to setting the foundations for the race, and is not a ranking of the overall qualities of each driver. It is simply about their performance on a given weekend. As such, the ranking will fluctuate significantly from weekend to weekend.
With each of the ten cars having fundamentally different performance potential and ‘luck’ (i.e. factors outside the driver’s control) contributing to how a weekend goes, this ranking will also differ significantly from the overall results.
It started: 2nd I finish: 1- The first
Hamilton’s first win in two-and-a-half years was impressive, particularly in terms of his pace when the rain first started to fall and his brilliant use of the soft tyres in the final stint that kept his car out of range of Max Verstappen.
His qualifying pace was good, but could have been a little better, but that’s a relatively minor criticism of a strong weekend.
The verdict: Outstanding in crucial moments of the race.
It started: Ninth I finish: Ninth
Albon did a great job for Williams, qualifying third and then surviving a difficult first lap in which he suffered minor damage after hitting the back of Fernando Alonso’s car as the Aston Martin driver made sure Nico Hulkenberg got back on track at Turn 3.
This, combined with the time lost on his first stop, made life difficult, but Albon drove a strong race to pick up valuable points, taking advantage of being on the medium tyres in the final stint to overtake Tsunoda for ninth.
The verdict: I got the most out of Williams.
It started: VI I finish: VI
In great form with the upgraded Haas car, he probably could have qualified higher than sixth given his lap in Q3 wasn’t executed perfectly.
The first lap was fraught with danger, with wheelspin at the start line and then a short trip to the run-off at Hulkenberg Village, leaving Hulkenberg in ninth place.
But his excellent pace on the slick tyres in the wet allowed him to overtake Lance Stroll, but a strategic disaster for Charles Leclerc and the retirement of George Russell left him in sixth place.
The verdict: Midfielder category.
It started: 1- The first I finish: Not finished
Russell did a lot right at Silverstone, both in terms of winning qualifying third to beat his team-mate to pole position and in terms of leading comfortably for the first 17 laps.
But when the rain first started to fall, he struggled more than Hamilton and lost the lead before falling behind the faster McLarens.
He was running fourth and still hoping to make gains when he ran into water system problems that eventually forced him to return to the Mercedes garage and retire.
The verdict: The speed when the rain first hits is the only small negative.
It started: the fourth I finish: 2nd
Verstappen did a great job of salvaging fourth place on the grid despite the damage to his floor in qualifying, although his position in the first place was primarily due to his heavy attack in the rain at Coppes and running through the gravel.
He also had an excellent race, and with a few more laps, he might have been able to challenge Hamilton.
Although this does not fully compensate for the qualifying error, it was otherwise excellent.
The verdict: Q1 hurts his rating.
It started: 3- The third I finish: 3- The third
There was a lot that was good about Norris’ weekend, but there were some rough edges.
He should have qualified better, maybe even on pole, but he overshot the pitlane on the second stop, costing himself less than two seconds.
But overall, he was fast, had a good race and could have won had he not been out on the track for too long and then put on the soft tyres – a decision he had a hand in.
The verdict: Small flaws have proven to be costly.
It started: Seventh I finish: Fifth
Sainz should have done a little better in qualifying, he admitted, but in the race he did a good job of getting back to the front when the rain came.
But the Ferrari’s pace meant he was always in a no-man’s land between the midfield group and the leaders, and he did well to stay there throughout the race and sacrificed some race time to stop for soft tyres and take the bonus point for fastest lap late on.
The verdict: Effectively reduce damage.
It started: Fifth I finish: the fourth
This was another week where Piastri’s result did not reflect his performance. Although he was the slowest of the McLarens in qualifying, he drove well in the race and there were times in the wet when he was clearly faster than Norris.
But the team asked him to stay out rather than double the number of drivers in the first pit stop between the cars, causing irreparable damage to his race.
The verdict: Strategy to eliminate the threat of victory.
It started: 13 I finish: The tenth
With RB running a set-up package that included about half of the Spanish Grand Prix upgrade thanks to problems with getting good balance through the corners, Tsunoda drove a good race.
He did well on the soft tyres in the wet and produced a race-winning drive that resulted in a point despite being saddled with the softs in the final stint, as he had no medium set left.
The verdict: I got a point the car didn’t deserve.
It started: The tenth I finish: VIII
As the Aston Martin was alive at Silverstone, so was Alonso. Unfortunately, after flying to that point, he ended up behind his team-mate due to traffic that ruined his lap with a new tire in the third qualifying round.
He regained the lead over Stroll in the first stint of the race when the rain came, although he lost more than 10 seconds to his team-mate thanks to his decision to stay out of the race when called for the playoffs, which ensured he finished behind him.
The verdict: Back to form.
It started: VIII I finish: Seventh
Stroll found the Aston Martin slightly easier to drive at Silverstone, but lacked Alonso’s pace.
His 0.332s qualifying margin over Alonso was tarnished by the fact that he did a proper lap on fresh tyres while his team-mate did not, but it is worth noting that he out-lapped Alonso on their runs on used tyres too.
He had a good run up to seventh place, and although he had a harder time on the slicks when the rain came and he fell behind Hulkenberg and Alonso, he finished ahead of the latter thanks to gaining significant time by stopping for the mediums with one lap to go.
The verdict: It was a well executed weekend.
It started: 12 I finish: eleventh
Sargent enjoyed parity with Albon this week and was strong about the quality of his performance.
And rightly so, as this was one of his strongest weekends in Formula 1. He took the lead from Albon on the first lap, but Vali passed him again and then followed his team-mate into the first stint.
Losing time in a double stoppage meant he was held back, and that cost him the chance to fight Tsunoda for the final point.
The verdict: Encouraging, but still far from Albon’s level.
It started: eleventh I finish: 14
Since Leclerc used the Spanish floor/chassis all day on Friday, while his team-mate used the Spanish floor/chassis from Saturday onwards, it was no surprise that he felt less comfortable with the car in qualifying.
As a result, he missed qualifying three due to struggling to keep his front left tire alive and suffering from oversteer.
After overtaking Stroll for seventh in the first stint, he was the only driver with something to lose to switch to the medium tyres early, a decision that was devastating to his race.
The verdict: He wasn’t at his best, but there were circumstances that mitigated his severity.
It started: 17 I finish: 12
Magnussen’s weekend didn’t start well until the race. This was partly due to the fact that he sat out first practice for Uli Biermann, but his pace wasn’t particularly impressive even before he started on slick tyres at Coppes in the first round of qualifying.
He had a good first stint with strong pace on the slicks in the rain which saw him move up to 11th, but grain on the softs in his final stint meant he dropped back and was overtaken by Sargent.
The verdict: Two-thirds of the race was strong, the rest of the weekend was less so.
It started: 14 I finish: 18
There was a rare appearance for Zhou in second qualifying, where he outpaced team-mate Valtteri Bottas thanks to the improvement on the slick tyres in difficult conditions, setting him up for a decent race.
But starting on the soft tyres made things difficult for him, as after an early 14th place finish, his form dropped off as the tyres started to wear down. This led to an early gamble on the medium tyres, which backfired, condemning him to last place.
The verdict: Strategy ruined a decent weekend.
It started: 15 I finish: 13
The second stage of qualifying was difficult for Ricciardo due to the usual traffic jams, although he always seemed to be at a disadvantage compared to his team-mate.
The trend continued into an uncertain race at the halfway stage for Ricciardo, who summed up his feelings when he said “I hope there’s a big hole in my car that I haven’t seen yet and that’s why we’re slow” after struggling in the race.
The verdict: Weekend with nothing.
It started: sixteen I finish: 15
Bottas may have deserved to qualify for the second round of qualifying, but he was unable to improve on his performance on the final lap, as track conditions improved again.
He made a good start, but was hung out to dry at Turn 4 and dropped back, ensuring a long and difficult afternoon – effectively finishing last of those who hadn’t made the mistake of taking early delays (he even finished behind one of those who had).
The verdict: Good weekend in a bad car.
It started: 18 I finish: sixteen
Ocon summed up his weekend well, saying: “Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong; we made all the wrong decisions from before the race, to on the grid, to during the race. Every decision made based on the information was wrong.”
Notable among those mistakes were a confusion at the end of Q1 which probably cost him a place in Q2, a poor choice to start on soft tyres and a risky early switch to medium tyres.
Moreover, the Alpine never showed the same speed as it did in previous races.
The verdict: I was given little chance to impress.
It started: 20 (digging) I finish: 17
Once again, qualifying ruined Perez’s weekend, although this time it was a mistake on the outside lap in tricky conditions that saw him parked on the gravel at Coppes.
Throwing power unit components onto the car to avoid future penalties was an obvious move, as was a risky early switch to medium tyres – engineer Hugh Bird said after the race it was “worth the risk” – which killed any chance of a good recovery.
The verdict: An unjustified mistake in the first quarter of the season spoiled the weekend.
It started: 19 I finish: Not finished
Qualifying was of little importance to Gasly as he was condemned to start from the back thanks to a power unit change, but parking his car on the gravel in the rain in FP3 did not help him achieve his goal.
But that didn’t matter as he had a gearbox problem which led to his retirement at the end of the formative lap.
Given that he sat out the first round of free practice, was not attacking seriously in qualifying and did not participate in the race, his assessment on that basis is meaningless.
The verdict: Useless weekend.
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