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F1i's Driver Ratings for the 2019 Singapore GP

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Charles Leclerc (Pole, P2, 18 pts): 9.5/10
Sidelined from first practice with a technical issue that restricted him to just 12 laps of running, Charles Leclerc was still on the backfoot in FP2 when he was four tenths slower than his Ferrari team mate. But when it came to qualifying, Leclerc was convincingly back on top, putting in a stunning final flying lap in Q3 that left many people in the paddock genuinely open-mouthed with awe and astonishment. He handled the start of Sunday's race with the confidence of future world champion, and then did exactly what the team asked him to do over the opening laps by keeping the pace down to a crawl in order to ensure the soft tyres would last long enough. From Leclerc's point of view everything was going to plan - so how come Sebastian Vettel had suddenly ended up ahead of him? Leclerc didn't hide his surprise and his sense of betrayal over the team radio, and there will be some who will criticise him for getting 'too big for his boots' after back-to-back wins at Spa and Monza. But as his boss Mattia Binotto pointed out, that sort of arrogance is the hallmark of any true F1 great - and Sunday's drive was further proof of that, even if on this occasion Leclerc didn't end up with a hat-trick of victories despite a basically flawless drive.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.

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