P2: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes 8.36/10 (175.5 in total)
So the guy sweeps to a sixth world championship and still doesn't get the additional accolade of being named F1i's top driver of 2019? We doubt that Lewis Hamilton will take too much umbrage by this revelation, and may even agree with the reasoning behind it, but it's still a bit of a surprise. After all, he won 11 of the 21 races this season and comfortably wrapped up the title with two rounds in hand. But compared to previous campaigns this proved to be a tough year for Hamilton, who was rocked early on by the passing of one of his sporing mentors - Niki Lauda. The other teams and drivers also succeeded in greatly reducing the gap to the Silver Arrows this year: after spending the first part of the season duelling with his Mercedes team mate Valtteri Bottas, Hamilton then found himself under mounting pressure from Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc. In the latter half of the season he was absent from pole position for nine consecutive races until finally returning to form in Abu Dhabi. That weekend saw him pick up a 9.5 rating for only the second time in 2019 (the first being Monaco in May) but there had been plenty of 9.0s and 8.5s elsewhere. Inevitably his worst rating was 6.0 for Germany, where he crashed out in the rain even though he rejoined and salvaged two points at the line.
