Feature

F1i's Driver Ratings for the 2024 Chinese GP

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Valtteri Bottas (Engine, Lap 19): 7.5/10
Valtteri Bottas has a positive Friday, finishing in the top ten in both the free practice and Sprint qualifying sessions which is quite the best that Sauber has looked all year since their conversion from the old Alfa Romeo branding. Unfortunately he lost out to his team mate Zhou Guanyu and to Haas' Kevin Magnussen at the start of the Sprint and subsequently to Daniel Ricciardo, leaving him a long way from the points paying top eight. He was back in good form for the main qualifying session, successfully making it into the final round, only to lose out to Lance Stroll at the start of the Grand Prix. Even so, he was still 11th after the first round of pit stops when his engine failed leaving him stuck in gear by the side of the track, the cause of Sunday's first safety car.

Yuki Tsunoda (Accident, Lap 25): 6/10
Yuki Tsunoda has been RB's star performer so far this season with two consecutive points finishes in the most recent races, but he was distinctly off-colour in China. For once, he never looked up to speed or a match for his team mate Daniel Ricciardo. He missed the first cut in Sprint qualifying by a mile and had to start the Sprint from the back row. He quickly got past Alex Albon, and benefitted from Nico Hulkenberg's decline and Fernando Alonso's retirement to move up to 16th by the finish. Things were no better in the Grand Prix where he once again started from P19 and then got tipped into a spin by Kevin Magnussen at the first safety car restart which put him out of the race. He was probably happy to get an early taxi to the airport and fly home by this point.

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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.