F1 Driver Ratings - Monaco Grand Prix

Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix may have been highlighted by a stunning drive from Daniel Ricciardo at the front en route to victory, but there were a number of impressive outings up and down the Formula 1 field.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - 8 

Lewis Hamilton was always braced for a tough weekend in Monaco, making P3 in the race and only a three-point swing in favour of chief rival Sebastian Vettel a pretty decent result, all things considered. Hamilton lacked the pace of the front two and was struggling more on his tyres, but can still be pleased with his push to the podium.

Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes - 7

Much like Hamilton, Bottas was expecting to struggle to fight at the front in Monaco, but had a harder time of it. Lacking his teammate’s pace in qualifying, Bottas started P5 and stood little chance of moving up the field after holding position at the start. The Supersoft strategy gave him a possible look-in at the top four, but as all nursed their tyres, he couldn’t improve on fifth.

Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari - 9

This will go down as a mixed weekend for Ferrari. While it had the edge over Mercedes, Vettel only made a three-point gain on Hamilton in the championship. He was the only driver who got even close to Ricciardo all weekend long, falling two-tenths of a second shy of pole in qualifying, but couldn’t quite capitalise when the Red Bull hit issues ahead.

Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari - 7

From pole in 2017 to P4 on the grid and in the race this year, Kimi Raikkonen perhaps had his most forgetful weekend of the season so far. Nevertheless, it was a solid display to keep Bottas back and secure a decent haul of points for Ferrari in Monaco.

Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull - 10

Christian Horner said that Ricciardo’s car was like Apollo 13 in the way it shut down, leaving the Australian having to manage like crazy. The herculean display saw him fend off a quick Vettel while keeping an eye on his tyres, all with a 20 km/h deficit. This was the most outstanding performance of Ricciardo’s career, capping off the most outstanding weekend of his F1 career as he led every single session and every single lap. All that was missing was the fastest lap!

Max Verstappen, Red Bull - 6

This was a weekend where Red Bull really should have scored a one-two finish. But much as in China, Max Verstappen blew it by getting a little over-zealous and crashing out, leaving himself last on the grid. While he was able to claw his way back to ninth in the race, Verstappen will still have left Monaco wondering what might have been, with Ricciardo now sitting on more than double the points after six races.

Sergio Perez, Force India - 6

A difficult weekend for Sergio Perez at the track where he hit the podium two years ago. Fine margins separated the midfield runners in Q3, but he could only finish ninth, but saw his hopes of points end after an issue at his pit stop caused him to drop all the way back to P15. It was a missed opportunity, but he lacked the pace of teammate Esteban Ocon regardless.

Esteban Ocon, Force India - 8

Esteban Ocon was mightily impressive in Monaco, bouncing back from a difficult start to the season that had seen him score just a single point in the opening five races. He managed to edge clear in the midfield fight in qualifying before pulling clear in the race to secure P6, and only finished five seconds back from Bottas at the chequered flag.

Lance Stroll, Williams - 4

He may have had a yacht parked in the Monaco harbour, but Lance Stroll was the one treading water throughout the race weekend. Williams always knew it would be tough, yet while teammate Sergey Sirotkin was able to clamber up the order in qualifying, Stroll floundered, beating only the Haas drivers. An early puncture effectively ended his day, leaving him to prop up the field, two laps down at the flag

Sergey Sirotkin, Williams - 7

For all of Stroll’s struggles, Sirotkin managed to fly the flag well for Williams, qualifying an impressive 13th. However, a team blunder - working on the car for too long on the grid - meant Sirotkin had to serve an early penalty, ending his hopes of his maiden F1 points. A decent performance all the same.

Nico Hulkenberg, Renault - 7

Nico Hulkenberg’s solid start to the season continued in Monaco as he finished as the leading driver to run a reverse strategy, starting on Ultrasofts before switching to Hypersofts for the final stint of the race. Hulkenberg did well to fend off Max Verstappen, and while he was unable to pass Pierre Gasly, P8 was nothing to be sniffed at.

Carlos Sainz Jr., Renault - 6

Sainz managed to outqualify his teammate for the second race in a row, but could not convert it into a better result in the race this time around. Heavy graining on the Ultrasofts caused a pace drop-off that left Sainz to let the quicker Hulkenberg through and also lose a place to Verstappen. It was a difficult road to just a single point, but at least something.

Pierre Gasly, Toro Rosso - 9

He’s done it again. At only two races this year has Toro Rosso had the pace to score points, and on both occasions, it’s Pierre Gasly who has brought home the bacon. The Frenchman was disappointed with P10 on the grid given he was just two-tenths from sixth, but he made a superb strategy work, running 37 laps on the Hypersofts - triple the number Hamilton did - before pushing hard on the Ultrasofts, fighting to P7 at the flag. Got given an inch and took a mile.

Brendon Hartley, Toro Rosso - 6

You can’t not feel sorry for Brendon Hartley at the end of this weekend. After finishing seventh in FP3, he genuinely looked in contention for a Q3 slot, only for traffic and yellow flags to resign him to a Q1 knock-out. He had a sniff of the points when he ran P11 in the closing stages, but was bowled out of the race by Charles Leclerc after the Sauber had a brake failure. Did little wrong himself, but another setback for the New Zealander.

Romain Grosjean, Haas - 6

Haas had a disastrous race weekend in Monaco, reminiscent of their debut season form when their car’s pace seemed to fluctuate from circuit to circuit. While the VF-18 has been solid pretty much everywhere this year, it didn’t get on with Monaco at all. Grosjean’s aim of ending his points drought this year was always going to be complicated by his grid penalty, but without any major incidents, P15 was really as good as it would get.

Kevin Magnussen, Haas - 6

Read as above for Grosjean, minus the grid penalty. Car was slow, no in-race incidents, finished 13th, move on to Canada.

Fernando Alonso, McLaren - 7

Fernando Alonso’s rhetoric about the predictability and mundane nature of F1 continued post-race, perhaps fuelled by his frustration at seeing a points-scoring opportunity pass by due to an issue on his car while running seventh. Alonso wasn’t at the top of the midfield this weekend, but did a decent job, particularly after a late change in setup direction following FP3.

Stoffel Vandoorne, McLaren - 6

Vandoorne had a more difficult time of it than Alonso in Monaco, failing to make it through Q2 following a gearbox issue. A pit stop glitch in the race dropped him down the order after sitting on the fringes of the points, with a late pit stop doing little to improve things for the Belgian.

Marcus Ericsson, Sauber - 6

A solid if unspectacular weekend for Marcus Ericsson, who after failing to match teammate Charles Leclerc for pace in qualifying was able to rise up the order through the race, eventually finishing 11th. Not a huge amount to write home about, but a decent finish given it was a race without any major incidents.

Charles Leclerc, Sauber - 6

Home favourite Charles Leclerc had hoped to continue his points streak into a third race after making Q2 once again, but he had a harder time of it in the race. After getting stuck behind Hartley, the Monegasque driver was left on the outside looking in for points before a brake failure then resulted in a scary crash at the exit of the tunnel.