Formula 1's Driver Power Rankings After 2015 Spanish Grand Prix
The 2015 Spanish Grand Prix wasn't Formula One's finest hour. While not the worst race the Circuit de Catalunya has ever produced, it was far from the best.
Such races make it difficult for a driver to shine, but Nico Rosberg was among the few to manage it. The German had a near-perfect weekend, following up his pole position with the race win to cut team-mate Lewis Hamilton's championship lead to 20 points.
Valtteri Bottas also stood out, holding off a Ferrari for the second time in two races to finish an excellent fourth.
The drivers will now be preparing for the next race—Monaco, on 24 May. 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 Bahrain Grand Prix and available here.
Honourable Mentions
1 of 11
Fernando Alonso did a solid job at his home race. He outqualified Jenson Button and might have had an outside shot at a point had his brakes not failed midway through the race. Will Stevens had no chance of a top-10 finish, but again came out on top in the battle of the Manors.
The Lotus front jack man also deserves a mention. When Romain Grosjean slid long at his final stop and sent him flying, the mechanic performed a quite brilliant midair manoeuvre and managed to keep the front end of the car in the air.
He suffered only minor injuries, the extent of which can be seen on BBC Sport's tweet.
10. Daniel Ricciardo
2 of 11
No Change
Daniel Ricciardo recovered from a difficult Friday to put in a strong performance in the race.
He qualified a disappointing 10th after an error on his best Q3 lap. Team-mate Daniil Kvyat was eighth, a little under two-tenths of a second quicker.
Ricciardo held 10th at the start and had made only a little progress (up to ninth) before making the first of two stops on Lap 13. The team did a good job, and when everyone had been in for a tyre change, the Australian was up to seventh.
That was where he stayed all the way to the end, demonstrating comfortably better pace than Kvyat and leaving Romain Grosjean's Lotus behind.
Considering his car spent most of second practice—when most representative running is done—in pieces, his display on Sunday was very good indeed.
Ricciardo hangs on in 10th.
Rating: 8
Cumulative: 36
9. Carlos Sainz Jr.
3 of 11
New Entry
Carlos Sainz Jr. was back in the points after a fine weekend of driving.
He qualified an eyebrow-raising fifth, his time of one minute, 26.136 seconds a clear half-second faster than the leading Red Bull driver. Max Verstappen was a tenth slower and joined him on the third row.
Sainz indicated to press before the race that he didn't think he could finish fifth, and his words proved prophetic. He plummeted to 11th by Lap 7 and didn't look likely to move back up.
But a more solid middle stint staring at the back of Verstappen's car saw him lose only one further place, which he gained back due to Pastor Maldonado's rear wing issues. Sainz made his final pit visit five laps later than his team-mate and emerged back onto the track in an attacking mood.
He eventually slipped by with the aid of DRS four laps from the end before launching an assault on Kvyat for ninth. The pair touched in the braking zone of Turn 1 on their final lap, and though Sainz was forced to take to the run-off, he was allowed to keep the place.
Overall, it was a strong weekend for the Spaniard, and he returns to the leaderboard in ninth.
Rating: 8
Cumulative: 36
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8. Felipe Nasr
4 of 11
Down Two
Felipe Nasr failed to score, but did the best he could on a difficult weekend for Sauber.
He qualified down in 15th, a whopping 1.4 seconds shy of making it into Q3. However, team-mate Marcus Ericsson was even slower and started 16th, alongside Nasr on the eighth row.
The Brazilian made a reasonable start and gained a single position. One of the first drivers to dive into the pits, Nasr emerged from the window in 12th place and attempted to put pressure on the two Toro Rossos up ahead.
But toward the end of the stint his early stop caught up with him and he started to struggle for pace. Ericsson—who had stopped six laps later—closed up, and Nasr's attention switched to his mirrors. He made his second and final stop on Lap 39.
With a long way to go to the chequered flag, Nasr made the most of his track position, managed his pace and finished a comfortable 12th.
Not a spectacular display, but solid enough and about in line with what the car could do. Nasr falls two places to eighth.
Rating: 7
Cumulative: 37
7. Valtteri Bottas
5 of 11
Up Two
Valtteri Bottas is becoming something of a thorn in Ferrari's side.
The Finn put in one of his best single-lap displays of the year to qualify fourth. Team-mate Felipe Massa made a mistake on his Q3 run and could only manage ninth.
When the lights went out, Bottas made a good start and was able to challenge sluggish Lewis Hamilton into the first corner. The Williams man had the inside line, but Hamilton took better momentum around the outside.
Bottas slotted back into fourth. Though unable to keep up with the leading three cars, he was able to pull out a small gap to fifth-placed Kimi Raikkonen. This lead grew throughout the middle stint as the Ferrari driver opted for the harder tyres.
But Bottas was forced to use them in the final stint, and Raikkonen, now on the quicker mediums, closed up fast. It was a repeat of what happened in Bahrain last time out—a flying Ferrari attacking a slower Williams.
The result was the same too—Bottas comfortably held off the red car to claim another impressive fourth.
He's up two spots to seventh.
Rating: 9
Cumulative: 37
6. Max Verstappen
6 of 11
Down Two
Max Verstappen failed to excel for the second race in a row.
Qualifying a Toro Rosso sixth in the dry would ordinarily have been an exceptional achievement, but team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr. was a few tenths and one grid slot closer to the front.
Verstappen made a better fist of the opening laps, "only" falling to eighth as Sainz slid back to 11th. Despite being one of the first to dive into the pits, the Dutchman fell to a net 10th following the first round of stops after opting for the hard compound tyres.
He kept Sainz behind with little difficulty, but another early stop for another set of the hards—most drivers only did one stint on the slower tyre—left him under pressure toward the end.
Sainz breezed by on Lap 63, pushing Verstappen out of the points. He crossed the line in 11th, a disappointing end to a tough race.
He falls two places to sixth.
Rating: 6
Cumulative: 38
5. Felipe Massa
7 of 11
No Change
Felipe Massa had another less-than-ideal weekend.
Qualifying was disappointing for the Brazilian after he made a mistake on his only proper Q3 lap. Just matching his Q2 time would have seen him in sixth, but the error meant he started ninth. Valtteri Bottas was fourth.
Massa made a blistering start and was fifth as he entered the braking zone of Turn 1, but was pushed wide onto the grass at the outside of Turn 2 by Max Verstappen. Robbed of momentum, he fell back to eighth.
The Brazilian passed the two Toro Rossos as soon as DRS was activated, but he never quite had enough pace to challenge the leading five. Safe from attack from behind, Massa tried a three-stop strategy in a bid to get among them, but it didn't come off.
He finished sixth, a little over 20 seconds down on team-mate Bottas.
It wasn't his best race, but Massa remains in the elite group of five to have scored points at every round so far. He remains fifth.
Rating: 6
Cumulative: 38
4. Nico Rosberg
8 of 11
Up Four
Nico Rosberg finally had a perfect weekend and gave a shred of hope to those hoping for a proper title fight.
The German qualified on pole for the first time in 2015, his lap of one minute, 24.681 seconds knocking Lewis Hamilton into second. It wasn't just Rosberg's first pole of the year, but the first time he has outqualified his team-mate this season.
No doubt feeling a lot more confident after such a strong display, Rosberg made a perfect start and was unchallenged into Turn 1. He thereafter controlled the race, pacing himself and not putting a single wheel wrong.
Hamilton attempted to close up in the final stint but gave up, and Rosberg crossed the line more than 17 seconds ahead for his first win since Brazil last year.
Rosberg is the only driver with the machinery to truly take the fight to Hamilton this year, and he proved in Spain that—on his day—he has the ability as well.
He's up four places to fourth.
Rating: 10
Cumulative: 39
3. Kimi Raikkonen
9 of 11
No Change
Kimi Raikkonen failed to follow up on his excellent Bahrain display.
He qualified a disappointing seventh, behind a Williams, both Toro Rossos, both Mercedes and Sebastian Vettel. The gap to his team-mate over their Q3 runs was almost one second.
Raikkonen went some way to making up for lost time with a beautiful opening lap. He overtook Carlos Sainz Jr. into Turn 1 before slicing past the fast-starting Felipe Massa at the entry of Turn 3.
He then successfully defended Sainz's counter-attack and swept around the outside of Max Verstappen at Turn 6 to end the lap in fifth. Valtteri Bottas was next in line, but his fellow Finn proved a far more worthy adversary.
Bottas kept out of range for almost the entire race and, though Raikkonen attacked hard at the end, he could find no way past the seemingly improved Williams. He finished in the same position he was in at the end of the first lap—fifth.
In part, he just didn't turn up, but he was also using fewer of the new, upgraded parts than Vettel. He later revealed to press (h/t ESPN's Nate Saunders):
"I think we learned a lot from going for two separate cars following yesterday and today so I'm more confident we can see things more balanced. Obviously in a test if you have a run coming up, you change a few things so sometimes the only way to do this and see the difference is to go with two cars at the same time on the circuit with different things.
I think yesterday I prepared to take the risk and sacrifice a little bit myself and if we can learn and we can speed up our learning and knowledge then that will obviously help us.
"
If it was his decision, it was strange; if it was Ferrari's, it was extremely unfair.
Raikkonen hangs on in third.
Rating: 6
Cumulative: 39
2. Sebastian Vettel
10 of 11
No Change
Sebastian Vettel returned to the podium, but once again the Mercedes proved too quick.
The four-time world champion qualified third, the highest grid slot his Ferrari was capable of achieving. Team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, running without certain upgrades Vettel had, could only manage seventh.
A good start saw Vettel get the jump on Lewis Hamilton. He couldn't keep up with Nico Rosberg up ahead, but had little trouble keeping the other Mercedes behind him on a circuit with few passing opportunities.
The German maintained his position at the first round of stops, but had no answer when Hamilton made an early second visit to the pits. Ferrari decided against trying to cover off the Brit, and within a couple of laps it was clear Vettel was destined for the third step of the podium.
With less pace on the harder compound tyres, he faded at the end and finished 45 seconds behind winner Nico Rosberg.
It was a good showing from Vettel after the disappointment in Bahrain—it would have been interesting to see the result had he tried to match Hamilton's three-stopper.
He remains second.
Rating: 8
Cumulative: 41
1. Lewis Hamilton
11 of 11
No Change
Lewis Hamilton's dominance of the 2015 season came to an end in Spain.
Team-mate Nico Rosberg outqualified the defending champion for the first time this year; Hamilton's lap of one minute, 26.948 seconds was only good enough for second.
It got worse for Hamilton when the lights went out. Suffering excess wheelspin, he was passed by Sebastian Vettel and only just held off Valtteri Bottas. Unable to follow close behind the Ferrari, he settled into third.
Mercedes attempted to use the undercut to help Hamilton into second at the opening round of stops, but a problem with the left-rear wheel resulted in a slow stop. Vettel came in a lap later and easily kept the position.
Hamilton switched to three stops, making an early change to the hard tyres for his third stint. Ferrari declined to cover him and off he went, setting a series of blistering lap times as he attempted to close up on Rosberg.
But the German was always in control, and Hamilton ended up 17 seconds behind at the chequered flag.
He remains first, but with a reduced lead. Maybe we'll get a proper title fight after all?
Rating: 7
Cumulative: 44
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