F1i's Driver Ratings for the 2023 Spanish GP

Lewis Hamilton (P2, 18 pts): 9/10
Lewis Hamilton was not in a particularly upbeat mood on Friday, after finishing outside the top ten in the two practice sessions. While he was up to third in the rain-hit final practice these were atypical conditions and no one was reading too much into them. But when it came to qualifying, Hamilton found he was actually enjoying himself and doing rather well, even if meant eating his doom-laden predictions from the previous day. He not only made it through to the final round of qualifying (despite clashing with his Mercedes team mate George Russell at the end of Q2 and losing his front wing endplate in the process) to finish in P5, he got a promotion to fourth on the grid from Pierre Gasly's impeding penalties. That put him alongside Lando Norris at the start and the pair clashed going into the first corner, giving Lance Stroll the opportunity to swipe third place. Satisfied that his car hadn't been damaged from the contact with Norris, Hamilton took the place back from Stroll on lap 8 and his long first stint on softs meant he was up to second by the time he came in on lap 24. Although he came back out behind Carlos Sainz, his much fresher tyre gave him an unstoppable immediate advantage over the Ferrari. With Max verstappen out of sight at the front there was nothing more for Hamilton to do and he could settle back and cruise to the finish, increasingly confident that he would be joined on the podium by Russell in what by any standards is a very good day for Mercedes. Now they just need to keep it going and begin to reel in the Red Bull to vie for victories.

Max Verstappen (Pole, P1, Fastest lap, 26 pts): 10/10
We've tried to hold off garlanding Max Verstappen with perfect ten after perfect ten, because once you start going down that road it's very hard to stop. But this week there's simply no alternative than to declare perfection. Verstappen was fastest in all three practice sessions, and then claimed pole position by almost half a second from his nearest rival Carlos Sainz. His biggest problem came at the start of the race when he was on medium tyres and Sainz had the advantage of the faster soft compound, but Verstappen had it all mapped out and made sure that the Ferrari found no way past him into the first corner. After that it was pretty much plain sailing, although he was perturbed by the handling of the hard tyres during the second stint and relieved to make a second pit stop to don a pair of softs for the final laps. He seemed genuinely bemused when told he was being cited for exceeding track limits, but telling Max to calm down and take it easy is like holding a red rag to a, err, Red Bull, and that made him only more determined to push for the bonus point for fastest lap. By the time he was done he was 24s ahead of Lewis Hamilton and the rest of the field, a simply remarkable achievement in this day and age of 'level playing field' F1. A truly stunning, remarkable weekend's work for the reigning world champion, and there's absolutely nothing that we can find fault with - this time, at least!