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Ratings | Verstappen supreme in Mexico, Ricciardo disappoints McLaren

Ratings | Verstappen supreme in Mexico, Ricciardo disappoints McLaren

08-11-2021 08:13 Last update: 08:21

GPblog.com

Max Verstappen won the Mexican Grand Prix and of course that deserves a good score. As is the case after every race weekend, GPblog will give marks to the drivers for their performance during the last GP. Who was on top form and who failed?

Verstappen: 9.5

Max Verstappen drove an extremely dominant weekend in Mexico. He missed out on pole after Sergio Perez and Yuki Tsunoda made mistakes in front of him in qualifying, but the Dutchman was not without fault in his first lap itself. There he had a moment of oversteer. In hindsight though, it's a good thing he was able to start on the second row of the grid, as it allowed him to show how late you can brake for turn one.

Hamilton: 9

Lewis Hamilton did the maximum he could on Sunday, holding off Sergio Perez for P2. Red Bull Racing was simply too fast. However, Lewis could have made things easier for himself if he had beaten Valtteri Bottas in qualifying on Saturday. Then he would have been on the clean side and could have kept Max off himself.

Perez: 8

Sergio Perez ran through the stadium section cheering with his dad, but fair's fair: there could have been more to it. Tsunoda may not have been in the best spot in qualifying, but he got out of the way. As a result, the Mexican was perhaps a little too easily surprised. In the race, he went on the attack on Hamilton, but never really struck. However, when you see how far Verstappen drove ahead of Lewis, you know what was possible with that car.

Gasly: 10

Pierre Gasly drove a lonely but perfect race weekend. The Frenchman grabbed P5 in qualifying, helped by a big tow from Tsunoda, and didn't relinquish that spot in the race. Even better, due to the loss of Bottas, this even became P4. With this result, AlphaTauri is now on par with Alpine in the constructors' standings.

Leclerc: 8

Charles Leclerc drove a good race after a bad qualifying session in which he was beaten by his teammate. Sainz was also faster on Sunday, but the Spaniard had to give the spot back to Leclerc when it turned out that he couldn't catch up with Gasly either.

Sainz: 8

Carlos Sainz was faster than his teammate on Saturday and that hasn't happened often before. On Sunday the Spaniard was also very strong and he had the chance to attack Gasly. When that didn't work out he gave the spot back to Leclerc.

Vettel: 8.5

Sebastian Vettel didn't stand out this weekend, but with a seventh-place he scored important points for Aston Martin.

Raikkonen: 9

Kimi Raikkonen showed once again that he is still capable of delivering a good performance. The Finn finished in eighth place and scored points for Alfa Romeo.

Alonso: 8.5

Fernando Alonso managed to take some points from his adventure in Mexico. It was not a great success for Alpine.

Norris: 8.5

Lando Norris started from P18 and made sure McLaren didn't go home empty-handed. With Sainz and Leclerc in the points, McLaren lost third place in the Constructors.

Giovinazzi: 8

Antonio Giovinazzi was furious with his team afterwards but can look back with satisfaction on his race weekend. He fell just short of beating Raikkonen but came very close to the points.

Ricciardo: 3

Daniel Ricciardo made a mistake in the first corner and made Bottas the biggest victim. From Ricciardo, however, it's particularly sloppy. He braked in an attempt to overtake Red Bulls and Mercedes, which was not his fight at all. Now Ferrari is far behind and it remains to be seen whether McLaren can repair the damage in the Constructors' Championship.

Ocon: 6

Starting from 19 it was always going to be a tricky story and Alonso's pace didn't bode well for Ocon either. On the first lap, he also found himself in a sandwich between Tsunoda and Schumacher, and that didn't help his race either.

Stroll: 5

It was a messy race weekend from Lance Stroll. He was due to start from the back of the grid anyway, but with a crash in qualifying he gave his engineers a hard time. In the race, he again committed a few blows and missed the track too often. Stroll is in his fifth season in F1 but still behaves like a rookie at times.

Bottas: 6.5

Valtteri Bottas was great on Saturday with a pole but lost everything on Sunday. He strangely opened the door wide for Verstappen to allow Max to overtake on the outside on the racing line. Bottas then braked in far too early, was unfortunate enough to be hit by Ricciardo, but didn't manage to get back into the points for the rest of the race either.

Russell: 7

George Russell managed to finish ahead of his teammate despite his grid penalty and did what he could. Points have been out of sight for the Williams drivers for a while now.

Latifi: 6

Nicholas Latifi was again passed by his teammate while the latter had to start from the back with a grid penalty. The Canadian held off Nikita Mazepin, but that was about it.

Mazepin: 7

Nikita Mazepin drove a strong first part of the race. The Russian took advantage of the chaos at the start and was even close to scoring points. However, the Haas car is not fast enough and Nikita quickly dropped back to last place in the race.

Schumacher: 6

Mick Schumacher was thrown out of the race on the first lap in a racing accident. None of the three were really to blame, but unlike Ocon, Schumacher's race was over immediately.

Tsunoda: 5.5

Perhaps it was a little too ambitious of Yuki Tsunoda to get on the inside of Schumacher and Ocon, but it wasn't really a mistake. On Saturday, the Japanese was blamed by the Red Bull camp, but in hindsight Yuki couldn't have done much other than pull out in front of Perez. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but he did pull over.