DRIVER RATINGS: Look away now, Daniel Ricciardo fans!
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Max Verstappen – 10An 11th victory of the season – we’re running out of superlatives for Verstappen. He’s been faultless yet again and a second title is now within touching distance. He overtook Hamilton when he needed to – it was never really in doubt.George Russell – 8Russell was the slower of the two Mercedes drivers but he deserves credit for his call to stop under the Safety Car. It ultimately worked in his favour and allowed him to beat Hamilton. However, Mercedes allowing him to stop meant they had no chance of winning the race, giving Verstappen a free run at the seven-time champion. Charles Leclerc – 8Ferrari were the third-quickest team on Sunday at Zandvoort. Without the late Safety Car, it was likely Leclerc was certain to finish fourth so Ferrari were right to switch him onto the softs. Not much more Leclerc could have done.Lewis Hamilton – 9There’s no doubt that Hamilton remains close to the peak of his powers. Without Perez’s in Q3, he could have qualified inside the top three. Once Sainz was out of the way in the race, Hamilton was electric. His one-stop strategy could have worked out versus Hamilton but we couldn’t see that due to Tsunoda’s stoppage. He was left out under the Safety Car meaning he was unable to defend from Verstappen, Russell or Leclerc.Sergio Perez – 7Perez was off it all weekend, with a mistake costing him a spot on the front two rows of the grid in Q3. The Mexican fought hard on race day with another fantastic display of defensive driving against Hamilton before losing out to Sainz on track (inheriting fifth after the Spaniard’s penalty).Fernando Alonso – 8Another typical Alonso race day performance. Recovering from his disappointing Q2 exit, to finish sixth in the end. He got ahead of Norris to ensure Alpine maximised their points haul in the race for fourth in the constructors’ championship. Lando Norris – 8Norris continues to extract the maximum from the 2022 McLaren package with another strong weekend. He was ‘best of the rest’ behind the top three teams in qualifying before securing eighth. He lost out to Alonso in the closing phase of the race.Carlos Sainz – 6Sainz wasn’t at the races on race day at Zandvoort. While his 5s penalty was unfortunate, his race pace was simply awful in comparison to Leclerc. While he did have a slow initial pit stop, he was only running five seconds ahead of Norris before the VSC phase. A poor race overall.Esteban Ocon – 7After a disappointing Q2 exit, Ocon made the most of Alpine’s better race pace to recover into the points. The slower of the two Alpines but it was another solid day’s work for the Frenchman at Zandvoort. Related Mercedes explain strategy that left Hamilton ‘rightly’ angry “I just lost it” – Hamilton was at ‘breaking point with emotions’Lance Stroll – 8Stroll enjoyed his best weekend of the year with a Q3 appearance having shown outstanding pace through practice. A hydraulic issue meant he wasn’t able to participate in Q3. He maintained 10th on race day with the two quicker Alpines ultimately getting through.Pierre Gasly – 6Gasly was beaten by his teammate in qualifying and was running behind him before Tsunoda dropped out of the race. After the highs of 2021, Gasly’s switch to Alpine is necessary – a fresh start and new motivation in a works team. Alex Albon – 7Albon continues to impress for Williams, progressing into Q2 and running consistently in the midfield. Perhaps he deserves more plaudits as he’s doing a Russell-esque job this season. Monza should suit Williams so watch out for Albon.Mick Schumacher – 7Points were on the table for Schumacher at Zandvoort had it not been for a 10s pit stop. The German is fighting for his F1 career so it was a big missed opportunity that was completely out of his control. Still, his pace was promising all weekend and he should be encouraged ahead of Monza.Sebastian Vettel – 5A rare off-weekend for the four-time champion. He was unable to match Stroll’s pace all weekend. He picked up a 5s penalty for failing to move out of the way for Hamilton when being lapped mid-way through.Kevin Magnussen – 5Magnussen endured a poor weekend. He was knocked out in Q1 (again) and made an uncharacteristic mistake in the early phase of the race. Easily the slower of the two Haas drivers this weekend. Zhou Guanyu – 6Zhou managed to out-qualify his teammate once again, continuing his strong run of form in recent weeks. Alfa Romeo were never in contention for points but he should have finished a bit higher, particularly without his speeding penalty.Daniel Ricciardo – 4It was another difficult race for Ricciardo at Zandvoort. He was knocked out in Q1, whereas Norris progressed into Q3. The Australian couldn’t recover on race day, while McLaren’s strategy choices were strange.Nicholas Latifi – 4It’s easy to forget that Latifi was racing at Zandvoort. Once again, he was well off the pace of teammate Albon once again and didn’t feature during the 72-lap race. He has to do more if he wants to retain his drive for 2023.Valtteri Bottas – 6Bottas was knocked out in Q1 for the second week running as he was out-qualified by teammate Zhou. The Finn was running in 13th before another mechanical issue forced him out of the race early, resulting in the Safety Car. He was running ahead of his teammate in the race before that.Yuki Tsunoda – 6After making a rare Q3 appearance, Tsunoda’s Dutch GP ended in dubious circumstances. The Japanese driver stopped out on track as he thought one of his wheels was loose before returning to the pit lane. After AlphaTauri adjusted his seat belts, Tsunoda was sent back onto the track before stopping again, resulting in a Virtual Safety Car. Regardless, in terms of performance, it was an encouraging weekend up until that point.
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