Ratings | Hamilton not faultless, Verstappen dips and Ocon top of the class

Hamilton: 9

Lewis Hamilton drove to pole in a perfect qualifying session, but before that was messy in practice with some incidents. On Saturday he was unlucky with the red flag, but took the lead back from Verstappen on the restart. Hamilton wasn't without fault though, as he let Verstappen get to him too easily on the inside of the second restart and later on in the race he caught up with the Dutchman. Hamilton kept his cool in the end and won the GP of Saudi Arabia with a broken front wing. 

Verstappen: 7.5

Looking at his last qualifying lap, you know pole was in the cards for Max Verstappen. He threw it away with a mistake in the last corner, making it harder for himself in the race. The red flag helped him on Sunday, but an off-track overtake and aggressive defence against Hamilton did not endear him to the stewards. Whether he actually did a 'brake test' on Hamilton is unclear. If he did then he deserves an even lower score.

Bottas: 8

Valtteri Bottas did in Saudi Arabia what a second driver should do: take advantage of a mistake by the competition. This allowed the Finn to start from P2 and serve as a buffer for Hamilton. That didn't last long due to the red flag, but the Mercedes driver did maximise by crossing the line in third place.

Ocon: 10

It was a perfect race weekend for Esteban Ocon. He drove a strong qualifying session compared to his teammate, was lucky to stay out at the first red flag, but fought tooth and nail to defend his podium position. That he lost the duel to Bottas was no disgrace, the moment it happened was painful for the Frenchman.

Ricciardo: 8

Daniel Ricciardo had a poor qualifying, again beaten by his teammate, but on Sunday he rebounded well (with the help of the red flag) to finish fifth and score good points for his team.

Gasly: 7.5

Pierre Gasly drove another strong weekend for AlphaTauri with a rock-solid P6 in qualifying and eventually the same result in the race. You increasingly wonder what he could do in Perez's car?

Leclerc: 7.5

Charles Leclerc drove a strong qualifying effort to fourth on the grid, but he didn't get to enjoy it for long. With the red flag, he was one of those who lost their place, so he had to settle for P7.

Sainz: 7.5

Carlos Sainz was lucky with the red flag in the race after his dramatic qualifying session. This brought him back into the points and made his poor performance less obvious.

Giovinazzi: 8

Antonio Giovinazzi has found the accelerator since it was announced that he would be leaving Alfa Romeo. The Italian drove himself to Q3 and ended up scoring two points in the race.

Norris: 5.5

Lando Norris qualified in seventh place, but in the race he dropped to tenth. For him too, the red flag came at an inconvenient time.

Stroll: 6

Lance Stroll narrowly missed out on points in Saudi Arabia after steadily climbing up the grid in the scrap race.

Latifi: 6

Nicholas Latifi managed to keep his car on the track, keeping Alonso, Tsunoda and Raikkonen behind him. Compared to his teammate, however, he came up short again on Saturday.

Alonso: 5

Fernando Alonso did not have his weekend in Saudi Arabia. Where his teammate just missed out on a podium, the Spaniard was perhaps still reeling from his podium in Qatar.

Tsunoda: 3.5

Yuki Tsunoda drove a strong qualifying session, but the Japanese driver's attention span is still insufficient for a full race weekend. This time he missed out on a duel with Sebastian Vettel.

Raikkonen: 4

Kimi Raikkonen was already slower than his teammate on Saturday and he didn't have the speed on Sunday either. With all the dropouts anything was possible, but by blindly steering into Vettel's car the Finn threw away his own race.

Vettel: 4

Sebastian Vettel had a moment first with Tsunoda and later with Raikkonen after which his race was really over. Although Vettel was not really to blame in either case, in the incident with Tsunoda he could have used his experience to give himself a bit more space at the apex and was somewhat aggressive in his duel with Raikkonen.

Perez: 3.5

When your teammate seems on track to be five tenths faster than Hamilton in qualifying, it's shocking that Sergio Perez didn't even manage to qualify ahead of Valtteri Bottas. He had some bad luck with his crash on Sunday, but he constantly puts himself in those situations because he simply wasn't fast enough on Saturday.

Mazepin: 3.5

Nikita Mazepin could do little about the crash with George Russell. It was a harmonica effect in which he was the final blow. On Saturday he was again slower than his teammate.

Russell: 3.5

George Russell was driving a solid weekend until he was hit from behind by Mazepin. The Brit was an innocent victim.

Schumacher: 2.5

Mick Schumacher was faster than his teammate on Saturday, but on Sunday he crashed his Haas into the wall.