The 2022 Spanish Grand Prix was a tough race for many, Charles Leclerc retiring as Max Verstappen emerged on top. But how did the judges rate the drivers?
How it works
Our five-judge panel assess each driver after every Grand Prix and score them out of 10 according to their performance across the weekend – taking machinery out of the equation
Our experts’ scores are then averaged out to produce a race score – with those scores then tallied up across the season on our overall Power Rankings Leaderboard (at the bottom of the page)
Russell squeezed everything out of the updated Mercedes W13 this weekend. Starting fourth, he ended up leading after Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen went off at Turn 4 but inevitably lost out to Verstappen – after a stunning wheel-to-wheel battle. Cooling issues forced Russell to back out at the end of the race yet he still clinched a brilliant podium in Spain. As a result, our judges gave him the highest score of anyone.
Leclerc spun and recovered with a sensational lap to take pole in Spain, and seemed to have everything under control, batting off a Verstappen challenge at the start for what seemed an insumountable lead. That was, until his Ferrari engine gave way and sent Leclerc retreating to the garage. The Monegasque driver had done pretty much everything right up until that point.
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Despite Hamilton having been voted Driver of the Day, he didn’t rank #1 with the judges. Still, the seven-time champion received a lofty score having recovered from the back after a small collision with Magnussen. Hamilton was set for P4 but had to back off at the end of the race, finishing fifth despite his early setback. A drive worthy of a champion…
READ MORE: Hamilton ‘would have raced for the win’ in Spain without Magnussen contact, says Wolff
Another great performance from Verstappen, but one that wasn’t deemed his best of the season by the judges. The Dutchman’s DRS failed both in Saturday’s qualifying and Sunday’s race, setting him back, but he was given carte blanche to attack Russell by Red Bull and eventually won the race by a comfortable 13 seconds to take the championship lead.
Perez finished behind Verstappen but was convinced he had the pace to win on Sunday. Despite qualifying behind his team mate, Perez ended up ahead as Verstappen made a mistake at Turn 4 and the Mexican wanted to attack Russell to win – but ended up having to swap positions with the reigning champion. Team orders came into play on Sunday but the Mexican kept his chin up to back up a very useful Red Bull one-two.
Norris was outqualified by Ricciardo but the Briton’s pace was far superior, seeing the McLaren driver start 11th but finish eighth as the Australian ended up 12th – a nasty bout of tonsillitis notwithstanding. Taking machinery into account, as usual, Norris received a favourable score from the judges.
Similar to Norris, Ocon outqualified his experienced team mate – Fernando Alonso qualifying 17th but starting at the back – and Alpine’s Frenchman managed to finish seventh on the road from 12th on the grid. Another solid showing from Ocon and another solid score, too.
Bottas did a fantastic job this weekend. The Alfa Romeo driver qualified seventh and ran as high P3. He couldn’t quite hold on for fourth, such was the state of his tyres, but the Finnish driver managed P6 to head the midfield one again.
Alonso set faces to stun(ned) when he dropped out of Q1 in P17 but Alpine took the opportunity to fit a new power unit. The Spaniard, master of scything through the field on Sundays, put on a show once again as he went from last to ninth. A terrific recovery and an important one; Alonso scored his first points since the season opener.
Tenth in the race, 10th in the standings: Tsunoda qualified 13th but put in a tough shift, passing a few rivals on the way to the final point in Spain. The AlphaTauri driver was held up by Schumacher for a moment late on, which prevented him from taking on Alonso ahead.
Missing out
No one really came that close to knocking Tsunoda out of the top 10 but Vettel was the next highest on the board, the Aston Martin driver qualifying 16th but finishing 11th. Scroll down to see how the top 10 looks on the leaderboard heading to Monaco.
Leaderboard
