Formula 1's Driver Power Rankings After 2015 Bahrain Grand Prix
Formula One's 2015 Bahrain Grand Prix marked the end of the first "Asian season"—the sport now embarks on a tour of Europe, stopping off in Canada, before returning to Asia in mid-September.
The race didn't quite match 2014's edition, but it was nonetheless an exciting and tense affair. Pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton took his third victory in four races with a composed and controlled drive, but behind him the racing was much closer.
Nico Rosberg arrived in Bahrain under heavy pressure after a mediocre start to the year, and he silenced some of his critics with a gutsy, aggressive drive to third. He probably would have secured second had a brake failure not gifted Kimi Raikkonen—another driver who delivered a top-drawer race display—second with just two laps to go.
Behind them, Valtteri Bottas bounced back after an unspectacular start to the season, finishing fourth for Williams. But the man he held off in the closing stages, Sebastian Vettel, won't have been happy after putting in his worst performance of 2015 so far.
Max Verstappen, Jenson Button and Carlos Sainz also had poor weekends for one reason or another, but the likes of Will Stevens, Fernando Alonso and Daniel Ricciardo can be proud of their efforts.
With four races down and 15 to go, there's a three-week break for the drivers to prepare for the next grand prix in Spain.
Here's how they currently rank.
Note on Power Rankings
These rankings should not be confused with the championship table.
Rather than looking solely at how many points each driver has, they take into account race results, qualifying, the 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.
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—or fewer, at this stage of the season—is given on each driver's slide and determines the driver's ranking. Early in the year, a couple of points can make a big difference, so expect fluidity in the standings.
All position changes are relative to where the driver was in the previous set of rankings, published after the Chinese Grand Prix and available here.
Honourable Mentions
1 of 11
Jenson Button falls out of the rankings through no fault of his own. He didn't take any competitive part (qualifying or race) in the Bahrain weekend, so cannot be given a score. Carlos Sainz Jr. also exits after a disappointing Sunday display.
Sergio Perez and Will Stevens deserve a mention too. Both had strong races and comfortably beat their team-mates.
10. Daniel Ricciardo
2 of 11
New Entry
Daniel Ricciardo's engine failed in spectacular fashion in Bahrain, but it couldn't have picked a better place to do it.
The Australian maintained his 100 percent record of reaching Q3 in 2015, qualifying an admirable seventh—just one-tenth of a second slower than Felipe Massa's Williams.
He gained a place at the start when Massa's car failed to make the formation lap, held onto sixth for the opening lap and proceeded to have a somewhat boring race. His down-on-power Red Bull was unable to match the cars ahead, but in turn, it was sufficiently quick to stay clear of those behind.
In the absence of anyone to race with, Ricciardo might have kept himself occupied praying to the engine gods for a reliable Renault power unit. His Energy F1 lasted for all 855 corners of the race before finally letting go a few hundred metres from the chequered flag.
Fortunately, Ricciardo was able to roll over the line to claim sixth.
He couldn't realistically have done any better and is a new entry at No. 10.
Rating: 8
Cumulative: 28
9. Valtteri Bottas
3 of 11
New Entry
Valtteri Bottas got his season firmly on track with a brilliant drive to fourth.
He qualified fifth, ahead of team-mate Felipe Massa for the first time since the Australian Grand Prix, his best time of one minute, 33.381 seconds just four-tenths shy of a front-row start.
Bottas held his position at the first turn and ended the opening lap in fifth. His Williams is comfortably the third-quickest car in the field but doesn't have the pace to match Ferrari or Mercedes, so the Finn looked set for a somewhat uneventful afternoon.
However, Sebastian Vettel's error and subsequent additional stop for a new front wing brought Bottas into play, and he responded superbly. For lap after lap, he fended off the much quicker Ferrari, refusing to make a mistake under pressure and always pulling out enough of a gap before the DRS zone to stay ahead.
The 15-lap duel ended with Bottas crossing the line in fourth, a second ahead of Vettel, for his best result of the year so far.
A fine display sees Bottas break into the top 10.
Rating: 9
Cumulative: 28
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8. Nico Rosberg
4 of 11
Up One
Nico Rosberg went some way to silencing his doubters with a string of strong overtaking moves.
His display in qualifying was poor, his best Q3 lap almost six-tenths slower than the quickest time set by team-mate and pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton. Third was his reward.
Rosberg made a decent start but got boxed in behind Sebastian Vettel as he challenged his countryman into Turn 1. This allowed Kimi Raikkonen to go around the outside, relegating Rosberg to fourth.
As soon as DRS was activated, he set off putting things right. Raikkonen was his first victim at Turn 1 on the fourth lap, and Vettel fell to a similar move a few laps later.
However, the undercut—a car pitting a lap earlier than a rival to get an extra lap on fresh, quicker tyres—was very strong in Bahrain. Vettel twice got ahead of Rosberg, but the Mercedes man blasted through on both occasions.
Hamilton was out of reach, but second looked entirely possible—though soft-tyred Raikkonen caught Rosberg in the closing stages, it didn't look like a pass was on. But a brake-by-wire problem two laps from the end sent Rosberg wide at Turn 1, and the Finn was able to sneak by.
Third meant 10 more points lost to championship leader Hamilton, but this was his best display of the season. He rises a place to eighth.
Rating: 8
Cumulative: 29
7. Romain Grosjean
5 of 11
No Change
Romain Grosjean scored points for the second race in a row despite reserve driver Jolyon Palmer taking his place for first practice.
The Frenchman out-qualified team-mate Pastor Maldonado, no slouch over a single lap, for the fourth time in as many races. He started 10th but won't have been happy—his time from Q2 would have been good enough for eighth.
Grosjean had a strong opening lap, ending it in seventh place, and he didn't have much to do from that point on. In contrast to Maldonado's troubled, error-riddled performance, Grosjean drove a solid and reliable race to the highest position he could have achieved.
He finished seventh for the second time in 2015, putting valuable points on the board for Lotus. He remains seventh in the rankings.
Rating: 8
Cumulative: 30
6. Felipe Nasr
6 of 11
No Change
Felipe Nasr narrowly missed out on the points after overcoming a car issue early in the race.
He qualified ahead of team-mate Marcus Ericsson by three-tenths of a second to start 12th. Nasr leads the qualifying battle 3-1 at this stage.
The Brazilian made an average start, ending up 12th after the opening lap, and spent the first half of the race in traffic. According to the post-race comments on the Sauber team website, Nasr experienced intermittent power losses that slowed his progress.
During the second stint, he came up behind Felipe Massa, and after a few laps of trying to pass, he produced a beautiful piece of driving to overtake his countryman at the exit of Turn 11. Unfortunately, he lost the place he'd just gained barely a third of a lap later as Sauber were unable to match Williams in the pits. Pastor Maldonado's Lotus also got by.
The C33 doesn't appear to have good tyre management; Nasr made a third stop on Lap 41 and fell to 14th. He had the pace to score points from this position but lost time passing Ericsson and Nico Hulkenberg before getting stuck behind Fernando Alonso's soft-tyred McLaren.
He ended up 12th and remains in sixth here.
Rating: 7
Cumulative: 30
5. Felipe Massa
7 of 11
No Change
Felipe Massa recovered from a pit lane start to score a point, but he didn't always look strong.
The Brazilian qualified sixth, a disappointing four-tenths of a second slower than team-mate Valtteri Bottas. But in the end it didn't matter.
His Williams failed to fire up on the starting grid, and Massa had to be wheeled through the pit wall as the other cars set off on the formation lap. The car eventually decided to work, but he would have to start the race from the pit lane.
Having passed the two Manors on the opening lap, Massa got by Pastor Maldonado—then his race suffered another setback. Speaking to press at the circuit after the race, he said:
"I had a good first three or four laps as I was passing cars. Then I was in front of Maldonado. I don't know what he did to be honest, but he lost his braking point in corner four and hit my back. He broke a good part of the diffuser and, from that lap to the end of the race, I had no stability at the rear and was suffering a lot.
"
This badly affected his rear tyre wear and left him open to attack from cars behind. Williams opted for a very early second stop and a long, 32-lap final stint on the medium tyres.
They were badly worn by the end, and he lost places in the closing laps, coming home in 10th.
In the circumstances, he did well to achieve that.
Rating: 8
Cumulative: 32
4. Max Verstappen
8 of 11
Down One
Max Verstappen will be hoping for a return to form in Spain after a disappointing trip to the Middle East.
He could only manage 15th on the grid with a lap of one minute, 35.103 seconds. Team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr. was half a second quicker in Q2 and started ninth.
Verstappen had an OK start, but a very slow early pit stop dropped him to last. The youngster's pace on the medium tyres wasn't bad, but having lost so much time, the gap to the cars ahead was always going to be difficult to close.
Verstappen never really made an impact and was forced to retire after 34 laps with an electrical issue—his third mechanical DNF of the season.
This was the worst race of his career—but then, it's only four grands prix old...
He drops to fourth.
Rating: 6
Cumulative: 32
3. Kimi Raikkonen
9 of 11
Up One
Kimi Raikkonen finally returned to the podium after a 25-race absence—the longest dry spell of his F1 career.
He didn't make a great start to the weekend, but he put himself in contention by qualifying fourth, just over two-tenths down on team-mate Sebastian Vettel.
Raikkonen got off the line reasonably and got a good run around the outside of Turn 1, passing Nico Rosberg for third and almost getting alongside Vettel. The gain proved to be short-lived, Raikkonen was unable to defend from Rosberg's robust attack at the start of Lap 4.
But the Finn chose to take a different route to his rivals in the middle stint, taking the medium tyres instead of the softs. Despite the tyre being slower, he was quicker than team-mate Vettel and kept pace with the two Mercedes.
Raikkonen lost a bit of time toward the end of the stint as the tyres became worn. When he switched to the softs with 17 laps to go, he was 19 seconds down on second-place—but he rapidly began to close the gap.
With two laps to go, he was on Rosberg's tail and able to take advantage of the German's brake issues. He swept by into second, securing his first podium of the season and finishing less than four seconds down on race-winner Hamilton.
Maybe Vettel isn't going to have it all his own way at Ferrari this year after all. Raikkonen is up one place to third.
Rating: 9
Cumulative: 33
2. Sebastian Vettel
10 of 11
No Change
Sebastian Vettel had a bit of a nightmare after a great start to the weekend.
The German qualified a fine second, just four-tenths of a second down on pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton's best. It was the smallest dry weather gap between Ferrari and Mercedes all year, and he looked set to challenge for the race win on Sunday.
He hung onto second at the start, but it soon became apparent he didn't have the pace to challenge Mercedes. Hamilton pulled away, and after Vettel lost time with an error at Turn 1 on the eighth lap, Nico Rosberg overtook with relative ease one tour later.
Vettel then came under threat from team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, who looked quicker but was unable to get close enough to challenge. That threat was briefly removed when the Finn ran longer at the first round of stops, but at the second, Vettel again found himself ahead of Rosberg.
Pushing too hard as he tried to defend, Vettel went wide at the final corner and damaged his front wing. The resulting extra stop dropped him to fifth behind Valtteri Bottas, and he remained there until the end.
Vettel fell to third in the drivers' championship after his worst race of the year, but he remains second here.
Rating: 6
Cumulative: 33
1. Lewis Hamilton
11 of 11
No Change
Lewis Hamilton is starting to look like a shoo-in for his third world championship.
He qualified on pole for the fourth time in as many races, his lap of 1:32.571 more than four-tenths quicker than second-placed Sebastian Vettel and six-tenths clear of team-mate Nico Rosberg's best.
Hamilton converted his pole into the race lead despite a hairy moment at Turn 4 on the opening lap. A minor lock-up caused him to run wide, and had Sebastian Vettel been closer, the Ferrari would probably have got by—crucially, it didn't.
As has often been the case in 2015, Hamilton was able to manage his own race from this point on, pushing when necessary. Rosberg came close after being pitted first at the opening round of stops but fell back soon after.
The Brit's W06 developed a brake-by-wire fault on the final lap, but he was far enough ahead of Kimi Raikkonen to cruise to the flag for his third win of the season.
Hamilton remains first.
Rating: 9
Cumulative: 37
All qualifying and lap time data used throughout sourced from the official F1 website and the FIA.
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