Power Ranking the Formula 1 Teams After 2015 Austrian Grand Prix
The midfield provided most of the action as another Formula One weekend passed without a real battle at the front.
Nico Rosberg won the 2015 Austrian Grand Prix to record Mercedes' seventh win from eight races, with Lewis Hamilton completing the team's fifth one-two finish. Ferrari had shown promising long-run pace in practice but never got anywhere near the two Silver Arrows when it mattered.
Their ultimate pace was closer to that of Williams.
Further back, Lotus and Force India made the most of their Mercedes engines to secure handy hauls of points, while Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo ensured the Renault-powered teams didn't leave Austria empty-handed.
But one engine supplier's cars managed just nine laps between them; McLaren-Honda look further away than ever from a solution to their power unit's problems.
The British Grand Prix at Silverstone is a very different circuit to the previous three tracks, and we could see a significant shake-up in the running order. As we look forward to a return to the home of the very first World Championship grand prix, here's how the teams currently rank.
Note on Power Rankings
F1 team power rankings ignore the points table and instead present a snapshot of where each team stands in relation to their competitors based on the three key factors of reliability, single-lap and long-run pace.
The rankings are based on how they would perform if racing on an "average" circuit that places equal emphasis on each area of the car.
All position changes are relative to those in the previous set of rankings, created after the Canadian Grand Prix. You can find them here.
10. Manor
1 of 10
No Change
Manor recorded their best finishing position of the season in Austria.
The drying track in qualifying gave their two drivers a sniff of causing an upset, but though Roberto Merhi did a faster first sector than Kimi Raikkonen, he could do no better than 19th. Will Stevens was 20th.
Grid penalties for other drivers boosted the pair up four places each from where they qualified, but neither could take advantage.
Steven was out on the first lap with an oil leak. Merhi gained a place due to retirements for cars ahead and ran as high as 13th behind the safety car, but he was soon relegated to last place when it returned to the pits.
He finished three laps down in 14th—last, but still Manor's best result of the year.
They remain 10th.
9. McLaren
2 of 10
No Change
McLaren's hopes of using Austria as a test session of sorts evaporated almost as soon as the race began.
Fernando Alonso made it five Q2 appearances in a row, setting the 15th-fastest time. Jenson Button fared less well, only managing 17th with a lap of one minute, 12.632 seconds—but it didn't really matter.
Both received absurd 25-place grid penalties for changing multiple power-unit components. Alonso started 19th with Button 20th.
When the lights went out, Alonso made his customary good start and was 14th at the entry to Turn 2 on the opening lap. Sticking to the outside line, he emerged from the corner directly behind Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari.
The Finn lost it as he accelerated, his car fishtailing and collecting Alonso. Both were out on the spot.
Button joined his team-mate in retirement soon after when he was told to stop the car as a precaution due to what the team described as an "intake system sensor failure."
McLaren remain ninth.
8. Sauber
3 of 10
No Change
Sauber appear to be sliding back as other teams out-develop them.
Felipe Nasr put in a great Q2 lap to reach the final part of qualifying, where he set the ninth-fastest time. Marcus Ericsson was 12th, eight-tenths slower than his team-mate.
The Brazilian started eighth after Daniil Kvyat's penalty and remained there throughout the opening portion of the race despite pressure from Carlos Sainz Jr. However, shortly after pitting, Nasr got stuck behind Kvyat and lost a lot of time.
Even after the Red Bull was out of the way, Nasr struggled with overheating brakes and had poor pace. Passed twice with little difficulty, he ended up 11th.
Ericsson had a race so filled with misfortune he must have spent the previous week smashing mirrors. He first jumped the start, earning a penalty, then ran over debris on the opening lap and damaged both his front and rear wings.
The car had poor balance thereafter, and to make it worse, it also developed an electrical problem and turned itself off on two occasions. Ericsson finished two laps down in 13th.
Sauber have scored just two points from the last five races—and both cars have finished every one of them. They remain eighth.
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
7. Toro Rosso
4 of 10
Down One
Toro Rosso salvaged four points from a race that should have been their weakest.
Max Verstappen qualified an impressive seventh and ahead of both Red Bulls. Carlos Sainz Jr.'s final Q2 lap was affected by traffic, and he could only manage 13th.
The STR10's lack of horsepower was not in evidence at the start as Verstappen outdragged Valtteri Bottas out of Turn 2 to claim sixth. The Finn took the place back shortly after the safety car returned to the pits.
Verstappen remained seventh for most of the race, but he came under attack from Pastor Maldonado in the final few laps. After some hairy moments, an error from the young Dutchman allowed the Lotus man through. Verstappen had to settle for eighth.
Sainz made a great start and was up to ninth after the first lap. His pace looked good and points were on the cards, but a loss of power shortly after his pit stop resulted in his second retirement of the year.
Toro Rosso drop one spot to seventh, but it's fairer and perhaps more accurate to consider them joint-fifth. They and the two teams ahead look all but equal and are extremely difficult to separate.
6. Force India
5 of 10
Up One
Force India's "old car" celebrated its final race with a double points finish.
Nico Hulkenberg, fresh from winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans at his first attempt, banged in perhaps the best qualifying lap of the weekend to take fifth. Sergio Perez got it wrong on the drying track and went out in Q1—he started 13th after others took penalties.
A good start saw Hulkenberg maintain fifth, but he soon came under pressure from the quicker Williams of Valtteri Bottas. The Finn got by, and though Force India tried to take the place back with the undercut, the move only succeeded for a couple of laps—Hulkenberg was relegated to a net sixth.
There he remained to the end, comfortably quicker than the cars behind.
Perez started on the slower soft tyre, made up a few places at the start and passed Romain Grosjean after the safety car to run 10th. He kept both Lotuses behind him until his stop on Lap 39, from which he emerged in 12th.
Two quick overtakes moved him up to 10th, and Daniel Ricciardo's pit stop put him into ninth.
Force India rise a spot to sixth, and if their updated VJM08 is a big improvement, they could move higher after the next race.
5. Red Bull
6 of 10
No Change
Red Bull were always going to have a hard time at their home race and won't be too surprised with the outcome.
Daniil Kvyat continued his fine qualifying form, setting the eighth-fastest time. Daniel Ricciardo struggled to a disappointing 14th. However, both received grid penalties for taking new internal combustion engines; Kvyat started 15th, Ricciardo 18th.
Ricciardo had the better of the opening laps and moved up to 13th by the time the safety car returned to the pits. Managing his tyres for a marathon 50-lap stint, the Australian's pace wasn't especially good—but when he emerged from the pits on Lap 51, he was able to attack on a fresh set of super-softs.
One of the quickest men on the track at that stage, Ricciardo was able to chase down and pass Felipe Nasr for 10th, grabbing an unlikely point.
Kvyat started ahead and made a decent start, but contact on the opening lap forced him to make an early stop for a new nose. Back in 14th after the safety car, he was never quite as quick as Ricciardo and finished a disappointing 12th.
It's incredibly tight between Red Bull, Toro Rosso and Force India, but the Bulls remain fifth for now.
4. Lotus
7 of 10
No Change
Lotus scored good points but also chalked up their seventh retirement of the year.
Romain Grosjean made it through to Q3 but a hydraulic leak prevented him setting a time, and he qualified 10th. Pastor Maldonado failed to hook it up during Q2 and set the 11th-fastest time.
Both gained a grid slot due to Daniil Kvyat's penalty, but neither had a good time in the opening laps. Sergio Perez mugged Grosjean for 10th after the safety car came in, and the two E23s were left running 11th and 12th.
Perez held both up until Grosjean made his stop after 23 laps. Freed from the traffic jam, he showed good pace and would almost certainly have scored points had his gearbox not failed on Lap 35.
Maldonado took over his team-mate's position behind Perez and only got past with an undercut when he stopped on Lap 37. He emerged down in 12th, but some fine attacking driving saw him make his way up to seventh.
Lotus now look like regular top-10 finishers—when they get to the end—and remain fourth in the rankings.
3. Williams
8 of 10
No Change
Williams snatched their second successive podium after another strong display.
Felipe Massa led the way in qualifying, his lap of 1:09.192 good enough for fourth. Valtteri Bottas was hampered by yellow flags brought out following Nico Rosberg's spin and could only manage sixth.
Massa made a good start but, though he had a little look down the inside of Sebastian Vettel into Turn 1, he was unable to rise from fourth. In the opening laps following the safety car he couldn't keep up, but he was able to at least keep the Ferrari man honest—and when the German was delayed in the pits, Massa moved up to third.
The gap between the pair was just four seconds. Vettel was quicker, but Massa held him off to claim third and his first podium of the year.
Bottas lost out to Max Verstappen on the first lap but soon got back ahead after the safety car. The Finn then caught and passed Nico Hulkenberg (twice) and cruised to an easy fifth while managing a braking issue.
Williams aren't quite at Ferrari's level, but they are a long way clear of the other Mercedes customer teams. They stay third.
2. Ferrari
9 of 10
No Change
Both Ferraris encountered trouble at the team's worst race of the year.
Sebastian Vettel once again proved the top qualifier for the Scuderia, lining up third. Kimi Raikkonen was the victim of a mix-up on the drying track and could only set the 18th-fastest time. This became 14th after others took penalties.
Raikkonen's race lasted just two corners. He lost the rear of the car at the exit of Turn 2 and slammed into Fernando Alonso's McLaren. The resulting accident could have been very nasty; fortunately, both were able to hop out of their cars and walk away.
Vettel (and Raikkonen) had shown very promising long-run pace in the practice sessions, but he was unable to convert this into a challenge on race day. Though he remained third off the line, he could only watch as the two Silver Arrows scampered off into the distance—and it got worse at his pit stop.
A problem with the right-rear tyre cost Vettel third, and though he closed up on Felipe Massa toward the end of the race, he couldn't find a way by and finished fourth.
Ferrari missed the podium for the second consecutive race but remain second.
1. Mercedes
10 of 10
No Change
Mercedes achieved another one-two and now have more points than the second- and third-placed teams combined.
Lewis Hamilton took pole position with a lap of 1:08.455, two-tenths quicker than team-mate Nico Rosberg and a little under four-tenths faster than the nearest non-Mercedes. They could certainly have gone quicker, but incredibly, both left the track on their final qualifying laps.
The pair swapped places at the start, Rosberg leading into Turn 1. Though Hamilton attempted to fight back on the outside of Turns 2 and 3, he slipped back thereafter and the two W06s had lonely races.
The only real drama for either was Hamilton receiving a five-second time penalty for crossing the white line at the pit exit. This effectively ended the race as a contest and both went into cruise control.
Rosberg crossed the line first for a comfortable win, followed home by Hamilton and well clear of the rest of the field.
Mercedes remain in the top spot.
Session and timing data used throughout sourced from the official F1 website, the FIA and F1 Fanatic's lap charts.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
