In an action packed Singapore GP, Ferrari clinched their third victory on the spin, as Sebastian Vettel climbed to the top step of the podium after claiming his first win since last year's Belgian Grand Prix over a year ago.
The five-time winner in Singapore was one of many strong performances throughout the grid, though it was a mixed race for some, so lets have a look at all the driver ratings from the Singapore GP.
Mercedes AMG Petronas
Lewis Hamilton – 4th
The race topped off a rather underwhelming weekend for Mercedes in South East Asia. Arguably hampered by the poor strategy of the Mercedes team and traffic later in the race, however it was very much brought on by his own belief in his tire-maintaining abilities. Perhaps if he called the pitstop a bit earlier he may have stood on the podium, hindsight is a wonderful thing.
7/10
Valtteri Bottas – 5th
Another race, another unfortunate turn of events for the Finn. Around the same time that Hamilton went into the pits he received the infamous radio message headed by, “Valtteri, its James”. With the pace he had there was a genuine chance of him passing Lewis but the team managed the positions so that wasn’t the case. “We have certain rules and it can work both ways”, is what he had to say on the matter.
6/10
Ferrari
Sebastian Vettel – 1st
Vettel managed to pick up his first win since the Belgian Grand prix in 2018 and he did so in a comprehensive way. Following the pit window that saw him overtake teammate Charles Leclerc, Vettel was plagued with all kinds of traffic. This saw, over the next ten or so laps, some strong and daring overtakes including a very close call with Pierre Gasly’s Toro Rosso. Overall, he provided a great show and made it a third win in three for the Scuderia.
10/10
Charles Leclerc – 2nd
After back to back wins at Belgium and Monza, Leclerc had to settle for second after Ferrari made the decision to prioritise Vettel over him during the pitstop window. The Monegasque driver managed to put the car on pole during qualifying, however like many of the drivers, he was heavily impacted during the pitstops. After re-joining the track, he was held up by slower cars and couldn’t pass them with the relative ease that Vettel did. It's something that will come with time, something that he has a lot of.
9/10
Red Bull Honda Racing
Max Verstappen – 3rd
It was an uncharacteristically quiet race for the Dutchman, managing to bring the car home in a strong third place. More was expected prior to the weekend with the chassis of the Red Bull on paper making them favourites for victory, though that pace never materialised. Through all the chaos in the latter part of the race he still managed to fend off the advances of Hamilton and seal a podium position.
Alexander Albon – 6th
It was another quiet race for Red Bull's Alexander Albon who brought the car back in the same place where he qualified, sixth position. For large parts of the race he had been racing his own race, ahead of the likes of Lando Norris and Nico Hulkenberg who were battling it out behind him, but he was too far behind the Mercedes of Bottas. He made just the won mistake after getting an overwhelming amount of oversteer heading into the first corner, where the Thai driver had to take to the runoff area which lost him time.
6/10
McLaren
Carlos Sainz – 12th
It was like Carlos Sainz managed to race two entirely different races today. The Spaniard finished qualifying in seventh place but by the end of the first lap he was dead last. In the melee that was the first few corners he found himself on the end of a poor Hulkenberg move, forcing him to the back of the grid. And that’s where he would stay for most of the race until the first safety car. The bunching of the pack allowed him to cut the 90 second deficit between him and the next car. At the end of the second safety car he had managed to climb from 18th to 12th where he would stay for the rest of the race.
7/10
Lando Norris – 7th
Lando Norris managed to avoid the chaos and gain three positions from where he started. Towards the end of the race he saw his only real challenge in the form of a Pierre Gasly on much fresher tyres, but he managed to maintain the second gap that he had on the Frenchman for the closing few laps in what was a solid race from the rookie.
8/10
Renault
Daniel Ricciardo – 14th
In many ways it was a mixed bag for the honey badger. Being disqualified from qualifying and starting from the back of the grid probably wasn’t the best way to start the race. However, the Australian was one of the benefactors of the early chaos, managing to make up a fair few places from the start. On a couple of occasions desperation seemed to seep into his driving with late lunges losing him places on more than one occasion. He finished the day in 14th which is probably a fair reflection of his performance.
6/10
Nico Hulkenberg – 9th
The Renault team had to play the long game due to the events on the first lap which saw the German put on hard tires early on. However, the safety cars that were to follow in the remaining laps really helped him to finish in a respectable points position. He managed to claw his way back up to ninth place and take home a couple of points for the French works team, however if they had managed to keep it clean it could have been a much more fortuitous weekend.
6/10
Toro Rosso
Pierre Gasly – 8th
Very much in the same boat as Hulkenberg, the Frenchman managed to stay out long enough to be in the top three when the main pitstop window ended. After almost being taken out by eventual race winner Vettel and being passed by the top six prior to his pitstop, Gasly came back into the race in eighth position where he would stay for the rest of the race.
6/10
Daniil Kvyat – 15th
The Russian spent a lot of the day being swarmed by his fellow mid-table drivers, who were all in the hunt for the final couple of points paying positions. He looked to be making some progress until it came to a startling halt whilst battling Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen. As the Finn took the first corner, Daniil Kvyat lunged in and collided with Raikkonen and ended his race early. The damage really impaired the final few laps and limited him towards the bottom of the grid.
5/10
Racing Point
Sergio Perez – DNF
After promising so much this weekend in terms of updates, the reality of the situation was anything but promising for Sergio Perez. His race went up in smoke towards the end, bringing out the second safety car of the day. Up until that point he had had a quiet race with only a few scuffles to his name. The retirement wasn’t his fault and at the end of the day there was little he could do to prevent the issue.
6/10
Lance Stroll – 13th
Unlike Perez, Lance Stroll’s afternoon effectively came to an end on his own terms. Having started on the harder compound tyre it gave the Canadian the option to run later into the race, meaning that when the pitstops came on lap 20, he was up to sixth place. However, once he had taken his own pitstop he joined Perez in fighting the rest of the midfield. In this fight he came close to ending his race after contact with an Alfa Romeo and the outside wall of the circuit.
6/10
Haas F1
Kevin Magnussen – 17th
Much like Sainz, Kevin Magnussen had a race that was defined into two halves. The Dane started quite well, jumping up to the top ten and staying there for the first half of the race. The second half of the race was more reminiscent of the Haas we have seen of late and saw him fall all the way down to 17th, the last finisher of the day, not a great one for the man from Denmark.
5/10
Romain Grosjean – 11th
In the same week that he confirmed his future at Haas, Romain Grosjean managed a respectable 11th position following a tough race. However, he didn’t do himself any favours. The prime example of this is his attempted overtake of George Russell, rounding the corner Grosjean swiped the back of the Williams, slamming it into the wall, springing the first safety car of the day. He was pretty anonymous for large parts of the race and benefitted from both safety cars.
4/10
Alfa Romeo Sauber
Kimi Raikkonen – DNF
Falling victim to Kvyat's dive bomb towards the end of the race, the experienced Finn ended the race early with a broken suspension. Up until that point he had been anonymous during the race. He was part of the gaggle of cars between tenth and 16th for most of the race and would have been looking for a higher finish given the cars suitability for the track.
6/10
Antonio Giovinazzi – 10th
What a day for the Italian. The first driver outside of the top six to lead a race since Williams led at Silverstone in 2014 and if the safety car had come a little sooner, he could have maintained that lead for a little longer. With his seat still up for grabs next year, a performance such as this really makes a case for his drive next year. The only tarnish on his record would be the ten-second penalty for driving too close to the stewards during the recovery of the Williams.
8/10
RoKIT Williams Racing
George Russell – DNF
Russell was another casualty in the Singapore Grand Prix, bowing out after an altercation with the Haas of Grosjean. This wasn’t the first incident that the young Brit had. Going into the first corner he was hit by a charging Ricciardo, resulting in him losing a portion of his front wing. The Williams seemed to have the pace to compete with the likes of Haas and under different circumstances potentially he could have finished well.
6/10
Robert Kubica – 16th
Following his announcement that he would no longer be racing for Williams come the 2020 season, Robert Kubica put in a performance to be proud of. Managing to pip the Haas of Magnussen to the line and finish in 16th is a step above the more normal finishes for Williams and it does show a small amount of promise going into the last few races of the season.
6/10