Formula 1's Driver Power Rankings After 2015 British Grand Prix
Lewis Hamilton's victory in the Formula One 2015 British Grand Prix saw him reclaim the initiative in the title race and open up a 17-point lead over team-mate Nico Rosberg.
It wasn't the dominant performance the home favourite would have wanted—without that late second shower, Rosberg could well have won—but by adding pole position and the fastest lap, Hamilton recorded his third hat-trick of the season.
Sebastian Vettel completed the podium after coming to life in the wet, while early leader Felipe Massa and Williams team-mate Valtteri Bottas fell away as the rain came down. It was Vettel's 20th consecutive points finish; the man he replaced at Ferrari, Fernando Alonso, is on a streak of one after grabbing his first point of the season.
Nico Hulkenberg again impressed, as did Daniil Kvyat, but Max Verstappen and the two Lotus drivers will have been glad to see the back of Silverstone after disappointing weekends.
They'll get three weeks to recharge their batteries before the next race—the Hungarian Grand Prix on July 26.
Until then, here's how the drivers currently rank.
Note on Driver Power Rankings
These rankings should not be confused with the championship table.
Rather than looking solely at how many points each driver has, these rankings take into account race results, qualifying, the overall performance of each driver and how drivers stack up against their team-mates. The relative pace of each driver's car is factored in, as is the identity and ability of his team-mate.
For each race, every driver who took part is awarded a score out of 10. The sum of these scores across the previous six races is given on each driver's slide and determines the driver's ranking.
As we're now more than six races into the season, drivers will start dropping points from races earlier in the year; this, coupled with a very tight field, may result in large fluctuations.
All position changes are relative to where the driver was in the previous set of rankings, published after the Austrian Grand Prix and available here.
Honourable Mentions
1 of 11
Max Verstappen falls out of the rankings after a poor outing at Silverstone. A difficult Saturday was followed by a race that lasted just three laps.
Daniil Kvyat came very close to replacing the Dutchman in the rankings. His form has been very good of late, and he was excellent for most of the British Grand Prix. His first-lap move on Sebastian Vettel was exceptional, and only a spin after waiting too long to switch to intermediates cost him a shot at his first F1 podium.
10. Daniel Ricciardo
2 of 11
New Entry
Daniel Ricciardo fell victim to the zero-tolerance track-limits rule in qualifying and didn't get the chance to make things right in the race.
He qualified in 10th after his quickest lap was deleted as he put all four wheels over the white line at the exit of Copse. Had the lap—a one minute, 33.563—been allowed to stand, it would have placed him seventh. Instead, the place went to team-mate Daniil Kvyat.
Ricciardo's Red Bull got off the line with all the style, grace and pace of a fully-laden oil tanker, and he was down to 14th at Turn 1. He tried to make up one of the lost places into Turn 3, but he and Romain Grosjean collided.
This sparked off the melee that saw both Lotuses and Jenson Button put out of the race, but Ricciardo escaped unscathed. It didn't look like he'd done anything wrong, and the stewards later agreed the contact was no more than a racing incident.
The Australian overtook Marcus Ericsson after the safety car returned to the pits, but he couldn't find a way past Carlos Sainz Jr. His team remedied the situation with an early stop and undercut, but Ricciardo's race was over soon after.
An electrical problem forced him to retire on Lap 21—his first DNF of the year.
Ricciardo had a disappointing weekend but comes back into the rankings in 10th.
Rating: 7
Cumulative: 44
9. Sergio Perez
3 of 11
Down Three
Sergio Perez was again put in the shade by his flying team-mate.
He qualified in 11th, two places down on Nico Hulkenberg. Like many drivers, Perez had a time disallowed for running wide at Copse; had it stood, he would still have been 11th, missing out on Q1 by just 13-thousandths of a second. Instead, he missed out by two-tenths.
A strong start and opportunistic pass on Sebastian Vettel saw Perez rise to eighth by the end of the fourth lap. The Ferrari man slid back through a few laps later, but the Mexican didn't drop back, circulating at the same pace as Hulkenberg until his pit stop.
He emerged having lost a place to Carlos Sainz Jr., but the Toro Rosso retired and Perez was back in ninth. As the rain began to fall Perez fell back sharply from his team-mate, lapping much slower, and a too-late switch to intermediates cost him even more time.
But there was no one close enough behind to capitalise. Perez came home in ninth to score points for the fifth time in 2015.
He's down three places to ninth.
Rating: 7
Cumulative: 45
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8. Fernando Alonso
4 of 11
Up Two
Fernando Alonso finally got a point on the board after some fine intermediate tyre management.
He qualified a lowly 17th, his best lap of 1:34.959 three-tenths of a second shy of the time required to make it through to Q3. It was Alonso's worst qualifying result since China, but team-mate Jenson Button was three-tenths slower and started 18th.
Alonso had made up a single place going into Turn 3 on the opening lap, but he was caught out when the two Lotus drivers were forced together and collided right in front of him.
In an effort to avoid joining them, Alonso took evasive action and ended up half-spinning and collecting team-mate Jenson Button. The impact was significant, but while Button was forced out, Alonso continued after a pit stop for a new nose.
Thereafter his race was a quiet one until it started to rain, and he gambled on an instant switch to intermediates. It was far, far too early, and as well as losing a lot of time, he was wrecking the tyres driving them on a too-dry track.
However, his rival for 10th, Marcus Ericsson, had made the same mistake, and the pair were just three seconds apart with 11 laps to go.
The Sauber man made two more stops—the first for dry tyres, the second a lap later for fresh inters—while Alonso stayed out. His rubber was in a sorry state and his lap times were very poor, but he did enough to hold off Ericsson for his first point of the year.
Alonso rises two spots to eighth.
Rating: 8
Cumulative: 45
7. Carlos Sainz Jr.
5 of 11
Up One
Carlos Sainz lost another potential points finish to that old Toro Rosso favourite—reliability.
He qualified eighth, a good result for an STR10 at any circuit. His lap was just one-hundredth of a second slower than Daniil Kvyat's for Red Bull; team-mate Max Verstappen was down in 13th.
Sainz had a poor opening lap, falling to 10th, and remained in this position for the opening part of the race. Fellow slow-starter Daniel Ricciardo was close behind, but the Spaniard held him off.
Ricciardo performed the undercut with a very early pit stop, relegating Sainz to a net 11th. However, when everyone else had stopped, he was up to ninth and—though he would probably have lost the place to Sergio Perez—looked good for at least one point.
Unfortunately, his car decided to turn itself off at the end of the 31st lap—Sainz's second DNF in a row.
He didn't have a great weekend but rises a spot to seventh.
Rating: 7
Cumulative: 45
6. Valtteri Bottas
6 of 11
Down One
Valtteri Bottas did his best lap in the wrong part of qualifying and paid for it in the race.
He qualified fourth, less than a tenth of a second down on Felipe Massa. However, his Q2 lap of 1:33.020 would have been good enough to beat his team-mate.
Bottas made a good start and challenged Lewis Hamilton for second through the opening corners. Though he eventually lost out, an error from the Mercedes man at the restart following the safety car saw Bottas nip through into second.
He had more pace than leader Massa on the option tyres, but the team ordered him to hold station. After some discussion, heard on the live TV broadcast, Williams relented and said he could have a go. But the delay meant Massa had settled, and Bottas had no real opportunities to attack.
The pit-stop phase saw Bottas emerge in third, a position he held until it began to rain. He immediately began to struggle in a car that doesn't go well in the wet, losing out to Rosberg.
Sebastian Vettel snatched another place when Bottas went a lap too long before switching to intermediates, and the Finn's pace was so poor he finished less than a second clear of sixth-placed Daniil Kvyat.
With Hulkenberg on top form, fellow rising star and big-team hopeful Bottas must start to beat Massa on a regular basis. He's down a spot to sixth.
Rating: 7
Cumulative: 47
5. Felipe Massa
7 of 11
Down One
Felipe Massa lost out on a second podium of the season when his Williams failed to shine in the wet.
He put in a great qualifying lap to secure third on the grid, outpacing Valtteri Bottas for the third time in four races. His team-mate was less than a tenth of a second slower and started fourth.
Massa made a blinding start, firing his FW37 between the two Mercedes to lead comfortably into Turn 1. He was almost caught out by Lewis Hamilton after the safety car when he made a small error in the middle of Stowe, but the Brazilian defended well and retained the place.
Most of the drama that followed was played out on the team radio. Bottas had risen to second and was clearly quicker at that stage of the race. Initially the team decreed there would be no fighting between their two drivers; a few laps later, they changed their minds.
Fortunately for Massa, the "moment" had gone, and Bottas didn't seriously challenge. Unfortunately for Massa, Williams let Mercedes get away with stopping Hamilton one lap earlier. The undercut worked and Massa was down to second.
When the rain began to fall, Nico Rosberg was able to easily pass as Massa struggled with what he later described on the team website as "the car’s weakness in the wet." Sebastian Vettel also passed him after the rain intensified and Massa stopped a lap too late; he ended up fourth but can take solace from the fact he was well clear of Bottas.
A good display with a disappointing ending. Massa falls a spot to fifth.
Rating: 8
Cumulative: 47
4. Nico Hulkenberg
8 of 11
Up Three
Nico Hulkenberg's renaissance continued with another top-class drive to a points finish.
He started ninth, having outqualified Sergio Perez for the third race in a row. Hulkenberg was six-tenths quicker in Q2—the stage at which his team-mate was eliminated.
But while his Saturday display was impressive, it was nothing compared to his start.
Hulkenberg got off the line like a shot, threading between Romain Grosjean and Daniil Kvyat before hugging the pit wall to speed past both Ferraris and into fifth. He remained there until his first stop, holding up a queue of quicker cars but not losing too much time to the leaders.
Force India's decision to make a later stop resulted in him emerging from the pits behind the Ferraris and Kvyat. They were all quicker, but Hulkenberg hung on and was in a good position to fight them when the rain started.
But he made his switch to intermediates a lap too late and wasn't quick through the pits. Raikkonen's too-early switch had bumped Hulkenberg up to seventh, and that's where he finished.
After a mediocre start to the year, Hulkenberg is rapidly becoming one of the most consistently brilliant performers on the grid. He's up three places to fourth.
Rating: 9
Cumulative: 48
3. Nico Rosberg
9 of 11
No Change
Nico Rosberg recovered well from a poor start and could easily have won the race.
He qualified in second place for the fourth successive race, outqualified by Lewis Hamilton for the eighth time in 2015. But he was well clear of third—his lap of 1:32.361 was seven-tenths clear of Felipe Massa's best.
Both W06s made average starts relative to the rest of the field, but compared to the two Williams FW37s they were pedestrian. Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas relegated Rosberg to fourth before Turn 1, and that's where he remained throughout the opening stint.
As the second Mercedes on the track, Rosberg was unable to take advantage of the undercut that saw Hamilton take the lead; he emerged back in fourth. But as soon as the rain started to fall, the German made short work of Bottas and Massa and began to close on Hamilton.
He was homing in at around two seconds per lap, and it looked for all the world like he might take the lead. Unfortunately for him, the British weather had other ideas.
Fresh rain began to fall, Hamilton called his switch to intermediates to perfection and Rosberg stayed out an extra lap. It cost him eight seconds and, with Hamilton marginally quicker on the inters, any chance of the race win.
He remains in third place.
Rating: 8
Cumulative: 48
2. Sebastian Vettel
10 of 11
No Change
Sebastian Vettel won the meteorological lottery after struggling most of the weekend.
He qualified down in sixth, his worst grid slot with a healthy car all season. It was also the first time he'd been outqualified by team-mate Kimi Raikkonen in a straight fight—the Finn was almost two-tenths quicker and started fifth.
An average start saw Vettel fall to seventh by the first corner, and Daniil Kvyat's lovely move around the outside of Brooklands and inside of Luffield relegated the German to eighth. Sergio Perez then slipped by just after the safety car period and Vettel was ninth.
He fought back and passed the Force India a few laps later before closing up on Kvyat. He couldn't get by on the track, but Ferrari played the undercut to perfection; both Kvyat and Nico Hulkenberg were dispatched and Vettel was back up to sixth.
In the dry, Vettel wasn't quite as quick as Raikkonen, but when the rain began to fall he came alive. The three-second gap to his team-mate was obliterated in a single lap, and Vettel cruised by on the Hangar Straight to take fifth.
From this point—the end of Lap 38—onward, he was the quickest man on the track. Vettel made short work of both Williams cars to snatch the most unlikely of podiums.
Average in the dry but stellar in the wet, Vettel remains in P2.
Rating: 8
Cumulative: 48
1. Lewis Hamilton
11 of 11
No Change
Lewis Hamilton won his third Silverstone race to retake the initiative in the title battle.
He qualified on pole for the eighth time in nine races with a lap of 1:32.248. This was a little more than a tenth of a second quicker than team-mate Nico Rosberg. This marked a significant turnaround from Friday, where Rosberg had looked far more comfortable.
The start saw Felipe Massa fly past Hamilton on the run down to Turn 1, while Valtteri Bottas challenged down the inside. Hamilton was forced to temporarily concede the place to the Finn but sneaked back through at Turn 4.
Following the safety car, Hamilton attacked Massa into the final chicane. Two lock-ups later he ran wide, allowing Bottas through. For the opening part of the race the Brit was unable to challenge the two FW37s up ahead, but smart pit work from Mercedes allowed him to take the lead at the opening pit stop round.
Hamilton pulled out a lead during the next third of the grand prix, but when the rain began to fall his position came under threat. Once he'd passed the two Williams, Rosberg began to catch his team-mate at around two seconds per lap.
Fortunately for the No. 44 car, more rain arrived just in time. Hamilton perfectly timed his switch to intermediates while Rosberg did another lap and lost around eight seconds. Hamilton stayed on the track to the end to record his third home win and fifth victory of the year.
He stays in the top spot.
Rating: 9
Cumulative: 50
Unless otherwise stated, all session and timing data sourced from the official F1 website, the FIA and Keith Collantine's lap charts at F1 Fanatic.
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