Bahrain Grand Prix - Driver ratings

The eagerly-anticipated first race of 2021 produced a surprise winner and plenty of stellar performances throughout the field. But only one driver took a maximum score in our driver ratings under the Bahrain floodlights.

Alex Kalinauckas Mar 29, 2021, 10:51 AM

Lewis Hamilton – 9

If Motorsport.com was allowed the luxury of decimal place ratings, this would be a 9.9. Mercedes now has F1’s second fastest car and Hamilton started second and beat the fastest car, so a maximum score must be considered. But Hamilton’s lap 51 slip off the road handed Verstappen 0.6s and allowed him to close in and make the pass that would have won the race had it stuck.

Max Verstappen – 9

A single error costs Verstappen full marks. He swept practice and aced qualifying, but the botched late pass is the difference. Any move would have been tough, but Verstappen had time and tyre life that he wasted trying the Turn 4 move with Giovinazzi occupying the inside. Had he been able to check up before running wide it would have worked, but he couldn’t and never got another chance.

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Author Alex Kalinauckas

Alex Kalinauckas is Autosport's Grand Prix Editor, covering every Formula 1 race since the start of 2020. After completing a master's degree in journalism at Goldsmiths College University of London in 2014, he worked for a range of motorsport and technology publications while covering national racing as an Autosport freelancer.

A lifelong motorsport fan - no one in his family can explain quite how or why such a development first occurred - Alex joined the Autosport staff in April 2017 as the magazine’s Assistant Editor covering Formula 2 and GP3, before being made Formula E correspondent and Autosport.com’s Plus Editor in March 2018. He lives in north-east London and is constantly frustrated by the Central Line.