Formula 1's Driver Power Rankings After 2014 United States Grand Prix
Lewis Hamilton won the 2014 United States Grand Prix to take a 24-point lead in the Formula One drivers' championship.
The Brit caught and passed team-mate Nico Rosberg on the 24th lap, and he looked delighted on the podium.
Rosberg, by contrast, looked a little bit disappointed after appearing so dominant in qualifying. Once again he failed to convert a pole position into a race win.
Behind them, Daniel Ricciardo put in another top-drawer performance, complete with signature overtakes, to claim third. Felipe Massa was fourth, Valtteri Bottas fifth and Fernando Alonso sixth.
It was an exciting, at times gripping race, and there was even room for a big surprise. Lotus man Pastor Maldonado finished ninth to score a hard-earned two points—his first of the season.
With two races to go, here's how the drivers currently rank.
Note on Power Rankings
These rankings should not be confused with the actual championship table.
Rather than looking solely at points, they also take into account race results, qualifying, overall performance of each driver and how they stack up against their team-mates. The relative pace of each driver's car is factored in, as is the identity of his team-mate.
Only performances at the last six races are considered.
The previous rankings, based on the six races up to and including the Russian Grand Prix, are here. All position changes are relative to positions in that article.
Honourable Mentions
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Felipe Massa has a strong case for inclusion—it was down to him or Jean-Eric Vergne, and the Toro Rosso man shaded it by a nose.
Also putting in a strong drive was Pastor Maldonado, scoring his first points of the season.
Adrian Sutil might have done the same had Sergio Perez not taken him out on the opening lap. With his future in F1 in doubt, the German's excellent qualifying performance deserved better.
10. Jean-Eric Vergne
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New Entry
Jean-Eric Vergne was eliminated in Q1 for the first time in 2014, setting the 15th-quickest time. He started 14th after team-mate Daniil Kvyat's penalty.
Electing to stay out when the safety car emerged, Vergne went for two stints on the soft tyres and made up time when his rivals switched to mediums.
He moved on to the harder tyre himself on the 29th lap and rejoined in 14th. He'd have to pass cars to finish in the top 10, and he went for it—with somewhat unfortunate consequences.
The lunge he made on Romain Grosjean into Turn 1 was a little bit too robust, earning him a five-second time penalty. But by passing his fellow Frenchman and also getting past Jenson Button and Pastor Maldonado, Vergne fought his way up to ninth.
He was demoted to 10th by the penalty, but a point was fair reward for a strong, battling display.
Vergne is a new entry in 10th.
9. Daniil Kvyat
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No Change
Daniil Kvyat out-qualified Jean-Eric Vergne for the fifth time in six races. But his lap of one minute, 38.699 seconds was only good enough for a lowly 14th.
An engine-change penalty dropped him to last on the grid. In this race, that was 17th.
Many cars around him stopped under the first-lap safety car, but Kvyat did not and rose to 11th. He gained more places, at least in the short-term, by doing the longest opening stint of anyone, and pitted from sixth.
He resumed in 14th but was playing the long game.
Returning to the track from his final stop with 14 laps to go, he was on brand new soft tyres while most of those ahead were on worn mediums.
The Russian steamed up to the rear of the main pack, passed Kimi Raikkonen and looked set to challenge for a strong points finish—but damage to his tyre in the scrap meant he had to pit again.
He trailed home last, a disappointing end to what could have been a good recovery drive.
Kvyat stays ninth.
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8. Sergio Perez
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Down Two
Sergio Perez out-qualified team-mate Nico Hulkenberg for the fourth time in six races, setting the 12th-fastest time.
But we never found out whether his race pace was good enough to finish higher than that.
Perez got up to 10th and went for an opportunistic lunge down the inside of Adrian Sutil. He hit Kimi Raikkonen before bouncing off into Sutil, then gave the German an extra tap for good luck.
The Sauber man was out on the spot, while Perez limped back to the pits to retire.
The Mexican will have a seven-place grid drop in Brazil as punishment for the move.
He drops two places here to eighth.
7. Jenson Button
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Up One
Jenson Button out-qualified team-mate Kevin Magnussen for the second time in a row, setting the seventh-fastest time. He was demoted to 12th due to a gearbox change.
He didn't make up any places at the start, but was probably grateful for that when he threaded his way through the debris of the Sergio Perez/Adrian Sutil/Kimi Raikkonen crash. He stopped when the safety car came out and was 14th when it returned to the pits.
The strategy gave him track position when many rival cars stopped but required heavy tyre management.
A gripping duel with Fernando Alonso toward the end of his first stint—which McLaren brilliantly described as a "consummately measured ding-dong"—was one of the highlights of the race.
When everyone had made their stops he was ninth, but he was lapping slowly on tyres well past their best due to what he called "unusual" wear. He defended like a man possessed but couldn't hold back the tide and slid to 12th by the end.
The drive deserved better. Button is up one spot to seventh.
6. Sebastian Vettel
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Up One
Sebastian Vettel made a nice gesture on Saturday, going out and setting a token time despite knowing he'd be starting from the pit lane.
He'd done a lot of work on race setup during practice and was expected to scythe through the field from 18th—but at first, it didn't really happen for him.
The four-time champion made two stops behind the safety car to get the soft tyres out of the way; when it returned to the pits he was back on the rear of the pack.
But he was just plain slow. Though he managed to overtake Esteban Gutierrez's Sauber, Vettel could, for reasons unknown, make no inroads on the cars ahead.
Then at his second stop, everything changed. Suddenly, he was the quickest man in the midfield.
Having worked his way up to seventh but starting to struggle with the old tyres, Vettel (or Red Bull) decided to make a late third stop for a set of softs.
Despite dropping to 14th, he blitzed his way back through the pack, setting the fastest lap in the process.
Vettel finished seventh, just half a second behind Fernando Alonso, and moves up one spot to sixth.
5. Nico Rosberg
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No Change
Nico Rosberg laid down a fearsome marker in qualifying. His lap of one minute, 36.067 seconds was a thing of beauty, quicker than 2013's pole time and 0.376 seconds quicker than team-mate Lewis Hamilton's best.
A good start saw Rosberg hold the lead into the first corner and, despite a brief off-track excursion at Turn 19, was still ahead when the safety car came out.
Rosberg and Hamilton remained in position until after the first round of stops, but the German began to struggle. Hamilton caught up and, after two laps close behind, attacked into the braking zone of Turn 12.
He seemed to catch Rosberg off guard.
Hamilton pulled out a gap and, though Rosberg attempted to close in after the second round of stops, he couldn't.
Rosberg finished second and remains fifth.
4. Valtteri Bottas
8 of 11
No Change
Valtteri Bottas qualified third on the grid for the fourth time in the last six races, three-tenths quicker than his team-mate Felipe Massa.
The Finn's hopes of repeating his Sochi podium were dented right off the line as Massa powered through. Bottas had a go at passing, but the Brazilian held firm and soon pulled out a small cushion.
Bottas lost a further place to Daniel Ricciardo at the first round of stops and again missed an opportunity to take back a place.
He was subsequently dropped by the Red Bull man, and he never looked likely to move up from fifth.
A disappointing race for Bottas; he remains fourth.
3. Fernando Alonso
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No Change
Fernando Alonso put in a lap of one minute, 37.610 seconds to qualify sixth. Having qualified fifth six times and seventh four, it was the first time he'd started from this position.
He got a good start and challenged Valtteri Bottas on the run out of Turn 1, but he had to settle for fifth after the first lap.
When the safety car departed, Alonso was caught out by Daniel Ricciardo, who produced an exceptional move to demote the Spaniard to sixth.
He lost places at his first stop and was pitched into what became a great duel with Jenson Button, which he eventually won. Button's McLaren team-mate Kevin Magnussen was easier prey, and Alonso was back to sixth.
He remained there for the rest of the race bar a single lap, and he fought off the late attentions of Sebastian Vettel to finish where he'd started.
Alonso remains third.
2. Daniel Ricciardo
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No Change
Daniel Ricciardo qualified a fine fifth, behind the four Mercedes and Williams drivers.
His hard work was wiped out within the first few hundred metres. Ricciardo made a typical "Australian in a Red Bull" start, dropping to ninth before the field had reached the pit lane exit.
He was seventh after two corners, and sixth after one lap—during which he'd produced a great overtake on the seemingly sleeping Kevin Magnussen—when the safety car came out.
When it returned to the pits, Ricciardo stuck to the rear of Alonso's Ferrari. On the approach to Turn 1 he threw a perfect dummy, feinting toward the outside before cutting in and taking the inside line.
Good strategy work promoted the Red Bull man past the two Williams runners, and he finished third—his eighth podium of the season.
Ricciardo remains second.
1. Lewis Hamilton
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No Change
After struggling with a braking issue in qualifying, the omens didn't look good for Lewis Hamilton. Team-mate Nico Rosberg had set a lap four-tenths quicker and looked odds-on to claim the win too.
The two Mercedes got off the line in formation and remained that way until after the first round of stops.
But then Hamilton began to reel Rosberg in. After a couple of sniffs, he finally got close enough on the approach to Turn 12 and hurled his W05 down the inside, braking later than Rosberg and taking the lead.
From then on it was just a case of managing the gap. Hamilton took his 10th win of the season and fifth in a row, extending his championship lead to 24 points.
He remains first.
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