Azerbaijan GP driver ratings: The worst weekend for Max Verstappen in six years?

Oscar Piastri - 10

Piastri delivered a masterclass in Azerbaijan to take his second career victory. His overtake on Leclerc was stunning, while his defending for the rest of the race was exemplary. 

Charles Leclerc - 9

Leclerc produced yet another perfect pole lap in Baku. For the first part of the race, it looked like it was going to be a comfortable afternoon for the Monegasque, building a five-second lead. The Ferrari looked less comfortable on the hards, losing out to Piastri into Turn 1 later on. He was unable to get back ahead before being put under threat by Perez and Sainz behind in the closing laps.

George Russell - 8.5

Russell extracted the maximum from the Mercedes in Azerbaijan. Fifth on the grid was followed up by a slightly fortunate podium finish. He did overtake Verstappen on track as well.

Lando Norris - 8

Norris was unfortunate to get knocked out in Q1 with the timing of the yellow flag. He recovered well to finish ahead of his main title rival. 

Max Verstappen - 6

A shocking weekend on the whole for Verstappen, who blamed a poor setup choice. He was comparatively out-paced by teammate Perez in Baku.

Fernando Alonso - 8.5

Alonso produced a great lap to make it into Q3, and beat both Williams drivers. Like he usually does, he extracted the most from the Aston Martin on race day to come away with a big haul of points.

Alex Albon - 8

Albon scored Williams’ best result of the year in eighth. Albon showed great pace by going long on the hard tyres, fending off from Norris, Verstappen and Russell. 

Franco Colapinto - 8.5

Colapinto continues to impress. The Argentine was arguably the star of qualifying, making Q3 in only his second F1 race. 

Lewis Hamilton - 6

Like Verstappen, Hamilton endured a poor weekend in Azerbaijan. He blamed a faulty component for his Q3 showing, while his race chances were ruined by a pit lane start due to a PU change.

Oliver Bearman - 8

Bearman was sensational in qualifying, getting one over Hulkenberg. The Haas driver struggled in the first part of the race for pace. He was then fortunate to get ahead of Hulkenberg on the penultimate lap, getting past into Turn 3 once they drove past the debris caused by Sainz and Perez.

Nico Hulkenberg - 7

Hulkenberg was beaten by rookie stand-in teammate in qualifying. He was on course to pick up a point heading onto Lap 50, but lost out to Bearman.

Pierre Gasly - 7.5

A fairly good weekend from Gasly, who was clearly the quicker of the two Alpine drivers. His solid qualifying display was ruined by a disqualification due to a fuel flow breach. He raced well to finish just outside the points. 

Daniel Ricciardo - 6.5

An underwhelming weekend for Ricciardo overall. He was the weaker of the two RB drivers and put together an anonymous weekend.

Zhou Guanyu - 6.5

Zhou’s fate was sealed ahead of qualifying after Sauber opted to take a new engine. Instead, he played the team game, giving Bottas a lovely slipstream on the Finn’s best lap. Zhou drove a solid race, ultimately finishing ahead of Bottas after overtaking him twice.

Esteban Ocon - 6

A bit of a disastrous weekend for Ocon, whose running was limited throughout practice

Valtteri Bottas - 6

Bottas’ qualifying form continues to be impressive - but it wasn’t enough to get through to Q2.

Sergio Perez - 8.5

There’s no doubt that Azerbaijan was Perez’s strongest weekend of the year. He was comfortably Red Bull’s best driver, leading Verstappen by over 20 seconds before his unfortunate retirement.

Carlos Sainz - 8

While Sainz was a step behind Leclerc in overall pace terms, his tyre management and race day display was strong. The incident with Perez was a shame, with the stewards labelling it a racing incident.

Lance Stroll - 6

Stroll’s afternoon was ruined after contact with Tsunoda on Lap 1.

Yuki Tsunoda - 5.5

After qualifying well, contact with Stroll on Lap 1 made him the first retirement.