Italian GP driver ratings

Monza magnificence from Lewis Hamilton in a victory that not only beat Ferrari to a race win but also underlined how hard it is going to be for them to beat him to this world championship.

Getting as close as he did to the front row was already an achievement given Ferrari's single-lap superiority, but Hamilton's race performance went even further beyond expectations. Title rival caught cold inside four corners, Hamilton then stalked Raikkonen with sufficient patience and with nine laps to go took advantage of fresher tyres to expertly overtake the Ferrari. His championship lead is beginning to look commanding.
Rating out of ten: 10

Nearly but not quite for Kimi Raikkonen, whose wait for a maiden Italian GP victory, and a first anywhere in the 93 races since he returned to Ferrari, was nearly ended in what would have been euphoric scenes at Monza. Tow advantage or not, F1's oldest driver delivered a fully-deserved first pole of the year and drove a near-faultless race. His repass on Hamilton after briefly losing the lead after the Safety Car was an obvious highlight.

But it was Kimi's laps on the soft tyre after his pit stop, first when attacking to maintain his gap over the long-running Mercedes and then bottled behind Bottas in the other Silver Arrow, that proved his undoing.
Rating out of ten: 9

Make no mistake about it, this really wasn't Valtteri Bottas' weekend at Monza, but he ultimately played a crucial role in swinging the race his team-mate's way. In truth, the laps he ran ahead of Raikkonen and Hamilton were the closest Bottas had got to the front all weekend, with the Finn trailing the sister Mercedes alone by more than three tenths of a second in Q3.

But Bottas was there when the team needed him and, with Max Verstappen's robust defence against the quicker Mercedes backfiring on the Red Bull driver late on, he was on the podium at the end too.
Rating out of ten: 7

The view from the media in Italy is that Sebastian Vettel has yet to truly win over the Ferrari 'tifosi'. A first Monza win in red may just have started to make the difference, yet Vettel's weekend ultimately did not even meet minimum pre-weekend expectations.

Qualifying had already not gone to plan and, bottled up behind his team-mate through the first chicane, Vettel was susceptible to Hamilton on the long run to second and his victory hopes went spinning away as his car touched the Mercedes. With car damage, it was a strong and clean comeback drive from there but the wider damage to his title hopes may prove longer lasting.
Rating out of ten: 7

He didn't agree, but Max Verstappen's view that he left Bottas enough space on the outside as they braked for the first Variante was certainly in the minority - chiefly among the stewards, as they slapped him with a five-second penalty that cost him two positions in the final classification.

It was an unfortunate end to an otherwise impressive weekend in an inferior car for F1's fastest circuit.
Rating out of ten: 7.5

Spa and Monza have done plenty more to prove why Esteban Ocon needs to be on the F1 grid next year and, once Romain Grosjean's disqualification had shuffled the bottom half of the top 10 late on Sunday night, the Frenchman left the double-header with a pair of sixth-place finishes.

Ocon felt he could have started sixth rather than eighth with a better slipstream in Q3 and spent much of the afternoon trying to find a way past Grosjean, only for the stewards to throw the Haas out of the results hours later.
Rating out of ten: 8.5

While Ocon finished on the tail of Grosjean, Sergio Perez did likewise on the lead Force India with another of those stealthily impressive drive through the fields. The shock casualty of Q1 after the team had misjudged the cut time, Perez battled through from 14th despite his car sustaining what he described as "really big damage" following an early clash with Kevin Magnussen.
Rating out of ten: 8.5

Outpowered by the Ferrari-engine Haas and the Mercedes-engine Force India, Renault have struggled since F1 returned from summer so what became eighth place at Monza was certainly welcomed by Carlos Sainz. "We've managed to take four points from a weekend where we expected difficulties," said the Spaniard, who could not keep Ocon behind after outqualifying the Frenchman.
Rating out of ten: 8

A great result for Lance Stroll and Williams, with their first points for more than four months particularly timely for both. "Feeling good is an understatement," said a jubilant Stroll, who qualified 10th and then finished there in the race in sight of Sainz's Renault. With a move to Force India still firmly on the cards, Stroll will be expecting more of these days.
Rating out of ten: 9

It was just past 9.30pm on Sunday night, five hours after he had finished the race in 11th place, that Sergey Sirotkin learned he had become an F1 points scorer. It would have felt better to have crossed the line in 10th, but a first point at the 14th attempt was reward for a tough rookie season in a difficult car. "He drove a superb and faultless weekend," said Paddy Lowe.
Rating out of ten: 8

Amid a weekend in which the Ferrari seat pendulum seemed to be swinging back his way for 2019, Charles Leclerc's primary concern was what had happened to Sauber's pace. That is because strong practice form gave way to the earliest of qualifying exits. The race was better, despite early contact in the pack, but not enough for points even after Grosjean's exclusion.
Rating out of ten: 6.5

Whether or not Stoffel Vandoorne already knew he was heading out the McLaren exit door, high-speed Monza wouldn't have been the place he would have picked to try and salvage his Woking career. The weekend provided a similar tale to so many others in 2018 - outqualifed by Alonso and out in Q1, despite another relatively small gap, and then a race finish, but well outside the points after a decent drive. Stoffel is now driving for his F1 career.
Rating out of ten: 6.5

The carry-over grid penalty from Spa and further demotions for engine changes made Nico Hulkenberg's Monza an effective write-off, but he was still pleased he "gave it a real go" by trying a lap-one switch to soft tyres in an effort to go to the end of the race. He was running 10th at one point, but excessive tyre wear forced him to stop again and the points chance was gone.
Rating out of ten: 6

A blunt Pierre Gasly said Sunday at Monza "was clearly not the day we wanted" after collisions with Alonso and then Ricciardo sent his initially promising weekend - which saw him qualify ninth - into a tailspin.
Rating out of ten: 6.5

Marcus Ericsson's Monza 2018 will always be remembered for his frightening barrel-rolling accident in practice, when the Swede's DRS stuck open at the end of one of F1's heaviest braking zones. While understandably slightly shaken by such an impact, he wasn't deterred and completed the race weekend - although a Q1 exit and lap-one puncture in the race made the rest of it an unremarkable one.
Rating out of ten: 6

The good news for Kevin Magnussen is there have been far better weekends than this in 2018. His run-in with Fernando Alonso at the end of Q2 cost the Haas driver far more than it did the Spaniard when the fourth row was beckoning and, via some choice post-session remarks towards his former McLaren colleague, Magnussen made it known he wasn't happy. An early race coming together with Perez then scuppered his Sunday too.
Rating out of ten: 6

Disqualified

Floored by an illegal Haas floor. Romain Grosjean drove superbly all weekend to qualify and finish sixth but the team's technical indiscretion means that will not be reflected in the history books. But the team will know the true score and the Frenchman remains one of the grid's form drivers.
Rating out of ten: 9

Did Not Finish

Grid penalties and technical problems mean Daniel Ricciardo's season effectively remains on pause. Singapore, the scene of three successive runner-up finishes, can't come soon enough for one of the grid's best street-track fighters
Rating out of ten: N/A

Fernando Alonso was enjoying a surprisingly productive weekend in the McLaren around Monza before a misfiring engine effectively wrecked his race before it had properly started.
Rating out of ten: N/A

A weekend that promised rather more for Brendon Hartley. Knocked out in Q1 despite being just a tenth slower than team-mate Gasly, who went on to qualify ninth, Hartley's Sunday lasted just a matter of yards thanks to a clash with Ericsson.
Rating out of ten: N/A

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