F1 | Saudi Arabia GP Report Cards: Hamilton and Verstappen at the knife

lewis hamilton 8,5 He weathers the storm with calm, experience and strong nerves, managing to emerge unscathed from close encounters with the terrible Max. He has the fastest single-seater and in the long run manages to exploit its potential, like the commander of a ship in a storm. After the GP he looks tired, Lewis of Arabia didn't win a race but a boxing match.

Max Verstappen 6 Tightrope walker, bordering on incorrectness, spectacular on the second restart with an overtaking inside a film library, exciting for how he tries everything to hang on to the world championship, and yet completely crazy when he goes straight at every braking point, in that arrogance in never wanting to pass who then presents you with the bill at a distance. The braking on the straight to regain position in the worst possible way is incomprehensible. It's very fast, but aggressive beyond the law. The grade is an average between the driving rating of 9 and the conduct rating of 3 on the report card.

Valtteri Bottas 7,5 He masterfully stays out of trouble and beats Ocon in the photo finish, taking the podium in Jeddah, but also his personal world championship podium. He confirms himself as a solid second guide, professional to the end.

Esteban Ocon 8 Protagonist partly by chance and partly by merit, the merchant wins at the Masi fair and takes off the whim of (re)starting from pole. He deserves the podium but at the finish line he is burned by the momentum of Bottas' W12.

Daniel Ricciardo 7,5 Not very spectacular, but very effective. Among the walls of Jeddah he did nothing wrong, finishing fifth ahead of the Ferraris.

Charles Leclerc 8 For the way he drives on this track he deserved much more. The qualifying lap is monstrous, damaged by the red flag, he climbs up with attitude and makes things clear with Sainz with a nice overtaking.

Carlos Sainz 7 He can do little against Leclerc's fury but it's nice to see the two Cavallino champions battle each other fairly. Overall, his race was positive, with a confident comeback from fifteenth place and a beautiful overtaking against AlphaTauri.

Antonio Giovinazzi 8,5 A driver who thrives on road circuits, he is not afraid of the walls and ninth place is the right reward for a season in which he collected less than he deserved. Sauber may regret it.

Sergio Perez 4 Completely useless to the Red Bull cause. It fails at the most important moment.

Sebastian Vettel 6,5 He starts very well and seems to be able to put together a good race, but in the far west of Jeddah he is one of the favorite targets of gunfighters. Rammed crudely by Tsunoda and bruised unceremoniously by Raikkonen. He reacts in disbelief, of course.

Kimi Raikkonen 4 It's really unclear what he wanted to do with Seb, tragicomic in how he chases him into the chicane to get into him. A wave of affection for the German friend?

Mick Schumacher 4 He crashes and after his accident Jeddah changes face, transforming into an anarchic race without rules.

Fernando Alonso 6 Not very comfortable in the Saudi curves, but the message against the inconsistent choices of the race direction is an annals one.

Michael Masi 2 One of the worst race directions ever seen. Red flag thrown in vain, giving a disproportionate advantage to Red Bull. The plea bargaining scene for Verstappen's penalty is comical, you can't negotiate positions like that, it's F1, not a game of goose. Masi seems to be affected by protagonism, after Spa we witnessed another completely arbitrary race, with the regulations applied in an "elastic" way. And what's more, in such a tight season he was never able to keep Hamilton and Verstappen on track for a fair challenge. Inadequate.