Edd Straw’s 2022 F1 French Grand Prix driver ratings
The French GP race winner had a convincing if easy run to the top step – but there were two drivers who arguably made a bigger impression
Max Verstappen was going to have a fight on his hands to achieve his seventh win of the season in the French GP at Paul Ricard – but a Charles Leclerc crash made it an extremely straightforward run for the runaway Formula 1 points leader.
And while Verstappen did perform well, there were two drivers who arguably made even more of an impression – as reflected in this week’s edition of our driver ratings feature.
After each grand prix, The Race will rate each driver’s weekend with a mark out of 10.
An average mark is 5 out of 10, so that score indicates a decent drive given the high standard of drivers in F1.
For a more in-depth explanation, read our outline of the system.
Started: 2nd Finished: 1st
Qualifying
Only made a slender improvement on his final Q3 lap, with what race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase described as “slightly unfavourable wind”. But bridging the gap to Leclerc always seemed unlikely, even with a perfect lap.
Race
Chased Leclerc in the first stint before stopping on lap 16. That would have allowed him to undercut his way into the lead, but the path to victory was made straightforward by Leclerc crashing out given Hamilton didn’t have the pace to be a threat.
Verdict
Excellent, but needed a tidier Q3 and to overtake Leclerc in the first stint to be rated even higher.
Started: 3rd Finished: 4th
Qualifying
Recovered from what he described as his “worst weekend up to qualifying”, having struggled to find the right set-up. Perez lapped 0.159s off Verstappen and was in with a shout of beating him until he lost time carrying less speed through the final corner.
Race
After being jumped by fast-starting Hamilton, Perez ran fourth early on. That became third when Leclerc crashed, but he later came under pressure from Russell. Confusion surrounding the VSC restart with three laps remaining led to Russell jumping him at the restart.
Verdict
Was solid, but not at Verstappen’s level and was caught short at the restart, adding up to an average performance given the machinery.
Started: 4th Finished: 2nd
Qualifying
Described his Q3 performance as “a beautiful lap”, which gave a good impression of the Mercedes pace deficit to the front. Looked the quicker Mercedes driver throughout the weekend, but didn’t have the machinery to break into the top three.
Race
Made a good start to take third, which became second when Leclerc crashed out. Never had a chance of challenging Verstappen but didn’t put a foot wrong on his way to his best result of the year.
Verdict
Maximised the car in both qualifying and a straightforward race.
Started: 6th Finished: 3rd
Qualifying
Always looked to be giving away a few tenths to Hamilton – at least when they were on similar wing levels – ending up 0.366s down after a final Q3 lap he wasn’t entirely happy with. That dropped him behind Norris.
Race
Passed Norris through the first corner, but a brief snap allowed Alonso to sail around his outside in Turn 2. He repassed Alonso for fifth soon enough and spent much of the race chasing Perez, albeit with Sainz temporarily getting ahead before making a second pitstop. After his initial lunge at the chicane failed, Russell ambushed Perez at the VSC restart with three laps to go to bag third.
Verdict
Second-best to Hamiton, but effective in the race.
Started: 1st Finished: DNF
Qualifying
His pole lap wasn’t perfect, but it was assisted by a tow from Sainz and made possible by Leclerc’s lightning-fast corrections and ability to carry the speed even when a little out of shape in the corners.
Race
Held the lead from pole position and kept Verstappen at bay during the first stint before spinning at Le Beausset on lap 18 and nosing into the barrier. He was unable to extract the F1-75 from it despite little damage, and accepted it was his mistake.
Verdict
A strong weekend undone by one catastrophic error that slashes his rating.
Started: 19th Finished: 5th
Qualifying
Had the chance to show his speed in Q2 with a lap that was good enough for the front row. But given he had a back-of-the-grid penalty, he was rightly put into the service of Leclerc in Q3, providing a tow that helped make sure of a Ferrari pole position.
Race
Started on hards and made good progress early on, climbing to eighth by the time he made his first stop under the safety car when Leclerc crashed. A slow stop thanks to a problem getting the right-front wheelnut on cost him a place to Ricciardo, with the added pain of an unsafe release in front of Albon earning him a five-second penalty. He restarted eighth thanks to jumping Ocon, who served a penalty, and quickly dispatched the McLaren drivers to run fifth.
He then caught and passed Russell and Perez before making an oddly-timed second stop on lap 42 to bank fifth place and fastest lap when he could have attempted to build the necessary five-second gap by staying out.
Verdict
His strongest weekend of 2022 was undermined by engine penalty and pitstop errors.
Started: 9th Finished: 9th
Qualifying
Ricciardo was only a tenth and a half off Norris in Q2, but that was enough to fail to advance, the Aussie having ended up nine hundredths slower than Tsunoda.
Race
Passed Tsunoda through the first corner to run eighth, holding that position thanks to Leclerc’s crash despite being overtaken – both before and after his safety-car pitstop – by Sainz.
He felt more comfortable on the hards than the mediums but couldn’t hold off the quicker Ocon in either stint, ending up ninth with race pace that, overall, only gave away about a tenth to Norris.
Verdict
A decent weekend but still lacking Norris’s edge of pace.
Started: 5th Finished: 7th
Qualifying
Made the most of the upgraded McLaren to string together a strong Q3 lap that was good enough to split the Mercedes drivers. That looked to be the maximum the car was capable of.
Race
Norris was shuffled back to seventh at the start thanks to getting stuck on the middle line into Turn 1, with Alonso and Russell sweeping past him. And that was where he finished, gaining a place to Leclerc’s crash and losing it to Sainz’s recovery drive and dealing with any effect from picking up debris well.
Verdict
Probably got the best results he could have done, with the caveat that first-corner losses made it easy for Alonso to beat him.
Started: 10th Finished: 8th
Qualifying
Ocon was four tenths slower than Alonso in Q2 and suspected something wasn’t quite right with his car, describing it as “a terrible qualifying”. But given the team found nothing amiss, it’s likely he just struggled with oversteer and the wind effect on Saturday afternoon.
Race
Hit Tsunoda at the chicane on the first lap after being sent wide by taking a little too much kerb, which earned him a five-second penalty. Took eighth from Ricciardo later in the first stint, but lost that position when he served his penalty during the safety-car pitstop.
Re-passed Ricciardo to secure eighth with eight laps to go.
Verdict
A solid result but rating reflects the fact he was the second-best Alpine driver and made that first-lap misjudgment.
Started: 7th Finished: 6th
Qualifying
Made it through to Q3 comfortably, but gave away time on his best Q3 lap from Turns 3-6 so didn’t produce as strong a time as he could have done. That said, there probably wouldn’t have been enough to challenge Norris and McLaren for best of the midfield.
Race
Squeezed past Norris and Russell through Turns 1 and 2, although the Alpine never had the pace to keep Russell behind. But he had Norris covered easily for the rest of the race, inevitably losing a place to the recovering Sainz in the much quicker Ferrari on his way to sixth place.
Verdict
Other than giving away a fraction in Q3, a strong and straightforward weekend.
Started: 14th Finished: 12th
Qualifying
Struggled for front-end grip and was eliminated in Q1, which reflected the struggles he often has with that kind of car balance that prevents him from attacking the corners as he wants. Described it as “a completely different feeling” compared to Friday, but Tsunoda’s pace did show the AlphaTauri was capable of Q3.
Race
Started on hards and finished the first lap 15th after the two Haas drivers passed him but did pick off Bottas during the first stint.
The safety car was ill-timed, forcing him to stop for mediums, taking the restart in 12th place. He was chasing Albon on lap 28 when he made an optimistic lunge at the chicane, having to take to the runoff and go through the mandatory marker-board chicanes before rejoining, which cost him places to Vettel, Bottas and Magnussen.
He did make it to the end on mediums in 12th, successfully passing Albon into Turn 1 along the way.
Verdict
Didn’t make the best of either qualifying or the race.
Started: 8th Finished: DNF
Qualifying
Found the updated AlphaTauri a little unpredictable on Friday, but was happier on Saturday after some set-up changes. While Gasly struggled more with the understeer, Tsunoda was more comfortable and reached Q3.
Race
Dropped to ninth thanks to a slow launch, but his race was effectively over when he was clattered by Ocon at the chicane. He continued, but with floor damage, and later retired from last.
Verdict
Strong in qualifying and had his race ruined through no fault of his own.
Started: 12th Finished: 11th
Qualifying
While there was a small amount of time left on the table – perhaps a tenth lost in the final corner – reaching Q2 and getting ahead of Albon seemed a decent performance given the limitations of the Aston Martin.
Race
Ran 11th early on behind Stroll, having been passed by him after running wide through Le Beausset, and was still there at the end of the race.
He was temporarily separated from his team-mate by going a lap longer under the safety car to avoid the double stack and dropped behind Albon and Gasly. He got back ahead of them in the second stint and had a chance to attack his team-mate on the last lap only to have to narrowly avoid hitting him at the final corner.
Verdict
Was marginally the quicker Aston Martin driver but losing track position on the first lap made his race harder and cost a point.
Started: 15th Finished: 10th
Qualifying
Lost a little time early in his Q1 lap, but still appeared on target for a Q2 place only for a combination of traffic and an untidy final corner to cost him.
Race
Had a strong first lap, assisted by Tsunoda being removed by Ocon, and passed Vettel at Le Beausset. That was a key pass, setting him on a path to 10th place, a position he held for the vast majority of the race.
But he did come under pressure from Vettel late on, and had to come off throttle completely in the last corner to park in his team-mate’s way and protect the position.
Verdict
Unlucky in qualifying but drove a good race after a strong opening lap.
Started: 18th Finished: DNF
Qualifying
Got the major Williams upgrade package for the first time after two weekends running the old spec. Struggled with an off-centre steering wheel, then was baffled by the struggle for grip on the second half of his fastest Q1 lap that he suggested “felt like something broke”.
Most likely, it was the wind effect that Albon also struggled with that made the car unstable.
Race
Had a decent first stint, passing Bottas along the way, and took the restart 15th. That became 16th when Magnussen passed him, but he came back at the Haas and dived up the inside into Turn 1.
That forced Magnussen wide onto the kerb, which sent the Haas wide coming out of Turn 2 and into the Williams. Latifi retired with the resulting damage.
Verdict
Had a decent race before it went wrong, but his rating is undermined by getting caught up with Magnussen and his Saturday struggle.
Started: 13th Finished: 13th
Qualifying
Reached Q2 despite a spin on his final Q1 lap after struggling with the increased wind that unsettled the sensitive Williams.
Given the struggles with the car in windy conditions that hadn’t previously shown up, Q2 was probably about as good as it was going to get, although it wouldn’t have taken much to have beaten Vettel.
Race
Albon was always hanging around the periphery of the points, but felt he had to take too much out of the tyres in his attempt to stay there. He slipped from 11th, having jumped Vettel in the pitstops, to 13th in the second stint as a result.
Verdict
Did a tidy job in a car that wasn’t quite good enough to threaten the top 10.
Started: 16th Finished: 16th
Qualifying
It always looked touch-and-go whether Zhou would escape Q1 given his struggle for grip, ending the first runs 16th. But a big moment at Turn 6 forced him to abort his final lap and resulted in elimination in 18th place.
Race
Ran at the back early on and opted for an early stop in search of clear air. But this plan was undone by his attempt to keep Schumacher behind at Le Beausset, with a rear snap sending him into the Haas.
That forced another pitstop for a fresh nose, with Zhou later retiring with a power unit problem he spent the final part of the race trying to manage, but being classified in 16th.
Verdict
Far from his best weekend of the season.
Started: 11th Finished: 14th
Qualifying
Bottas probably just had the pace to have nicked a Q3 place, but failed to improve on his Q1 pace in Q2 – primarily thanks to time lost through the chicane. That added up to 11th on the grid thanks to penalties for Magnussen and Sainz.
Race
Needed a fair wind to have a chance of points, but wheelspin after starting on hards that was compounded by the timing of the first safety car that forced him into the pits – and ultimately onto a two-stopper – ensured a difficult afternoon dicing in the lower-midfield.
Verdict
Did a reasonable, but unexceptional, job with the machinery.
Started: 20th Finished: DNF
Qualifying
Was on a hiding to nothing in qualifying given he had a back-of-the-grid penalty, but showed how strong he and the Haas were by making Q3. Point made, there was no need to run in Q3, and it was clear he did have the pace advantage over his team-mate.
Race
Went from 20th to 13th on the first lap, but while quick the tyre degradation was problematic. He made an early pitstop, but that strategy was compromised by the timing of the safety car that forced a second stop.
He was 14th when the clash with Latifi at Turn 1 ended his race, a collision that was rightly judged a racing incident.
Verdict
Quick, but grid penalty and tyre degradation meant it was all for nothing.
Started: 17th Finished: 15th
Qualifying
Was comfortably into Q2 before having his best Q1 lap deleted for cutting the inside of Turn 3. He complained about the lack of warnings in practice, having used that line before, but a comparison with his onboard camera footage from his fastest laps in each practice session and the first run in Q1 showed he was cutting the corner more on the deleted lap than before.
Race
Was running 14th when he made a stop to switch to hards, meaning he had to make another pitstop when the safety car was deployed.
But while he was subsequently attempting to pass Zhou around the outside of Le Beausset, the Alfa driver had a rear snap and booted Schumacher into a spin. That ensured he was destined to finish last.
Verdict
Had similar troubles to Magnussen, but looked a little slower.
