P1 with Matt and Tommy - Hungarian GP Driver Ratings: F1-to-10

Episode Date: July 23, 2024

Despite all the radio drama, it was actually a bit of an ordinary race in Hungary this weekend. But that won't stop us dishing out some SPICY driver ratings for your listening pleasure. P1 Live is heading to North America this Fall and tickets are now on sale! Click here to get your tickets, which are already close to selling out!Sign up to our Patreon here! You'll get access to bonus episodes, our classic race series, every P1 episode ad-free and access to our Discord server where you can chat with other F1 fans!Follow us on socials! You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and TikTok.. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello everybody and welcome back to the P1 podcast with Matt and Tommy. And we have popped in our numbers into the system for another weekend of F1 driver ratings. Tommy, are you looking forward to this one? Because as much as we had a lot of discussion about certain controversial moments, the race was pretty terrible apart from that, wasn't it? There are a lot of very sort of normal performances with not too much going on and many kind of heroics on the track. So yeah, could be, well, this is interesting as well

that the last time we did drive ratings, everyone was like, keep it, so we're here. Here we are. No matter what. And here's Frank as well. We love to have the frank inclusion at the top of the podcast. Right, let's get into it. Straight away and start with the man we always start.

Kevin Magnuson. Qualified 15th, started 15th, finished, 15th. And to go with the fives, it's a five. I'm going to lock in a big old fat five for Kevin Magnuson. The soft tire runners were, I mean, screwed from the get-go, I believe, with that strategy. Pitting really early, getting stuck. And Hass just didn't look that good. weekend, to be honest with you, they looked quite poor considering you look at Holcomberg,

getting back-to-back P-6s and all this sort of stuff. It was a very anonymous weekend, I would say, for Hass and particularly Kevin Magnuson. It sure was, I've also gone for a five out of 10. Not a huge amount to report. They were very much just stuck in that kind of Formula B. and yeah not too much to report this week even their house have had a good run of form they've kind of maybe slipped back into the struggling to score a point kind of house stage now which maybe is a trend of of them during the season as they kind of always have a great start don't they and they fade off towards the end the fans gave Kevin Magnuson a five as well Nika Holkenberg, qualified 11th, started 11th, finished 13th.

I have gone four, a six out of 10 for Nika Holkenberg. He has to get a slightly higher grade than his teammate for popping at P11 in qualifying and a P13 in the race. Again, he's not had the most interesting of races, but he's not really done anything wrong and the car's not quite there. So I can't give him like a five out of ten even though. it kind of looks a bit meteoric on paper because the only person you compare to really is your teammate

and he's done better than KMAG all weekend. So it has to be a grade higher. Okay, I've gone, I'm going to go for, yeah, maybe it is a six. I'll go for a six out of ten for Nico. He did have a poor start, which then, I mean, one of the wildest strategies I've ever seen to go off the medium tires on lap two because they didn't want to be.

in any kind of dirty air. That is quite the strategy. Obviously, they thought the two hard tire stints would take them to the end. But it didn't pay off, didn't score any points, but I guess did outperform his teammate throughout the weekend.

So that's, yeah, a little bit of a nice little plus one for Nico there. And the fans gave him a five. Show Gwanyu. Qualified 18th, started 18th. Finish 19th. Not the best weekends for show. but once again, I think that the car's pretty terrible.

So I'm going to go for a four out of ten. Of course, there will be his supporters that come into the comments and let us know exactly what we missed in his race. So I look forward to reading those every week. But it's a four out of ten. You know, he pitted early to try and cover people around him. Obviously, he was trying to protect Valtry as well in some regard, but I'm not really sure how much that would have really worked

because it didn't actually pay off. And then had an uneventful race. the car was rubbish as well. So, four. I've gone for a three out of ten for Joe Gwainu. Again, qualifying down in 18th while his teammates up in 12th is disappointing. He needs to sort that out. And it's all right saying, oh, it's had a difficult race, but you start 18th at a track like Hungary and you're not having a very good time of it. So, yeah, just another one of his sort of, unfortunately for him, usual kind of weekends where he's very,

anonymous and not particularly good in qualifying. Valtry Bottas, qualified 12th, started 12th, finished 16th. I've gone for a five out of ten for Valtry Bottas. He's going to be a few drivers that are quite difficult to grade because strategy at Hungary you can get caught in the pack, can't you? And end up completely shafted and sometimes doesn't always reflect their pace because Botas had a great qualifying session which has to be applauded but again no no points on the board still for Saabra is quite shocking you feel like they there must be one race where

luck goes their way and they can just deliver a result but no they they tumble down the order from a good qualifying from Botas so uh not great I've gone for a six out of ten for Valtrey Bottas I think that he is very hamstrung by his car and qualifying 12th is no mean feat, so I feel as though that deserves some kind of recognition there for sure in my grade. So I'm going to give him a slightly higher than straight down the middle, just purely because there's not much he can really do, and he beat his teammate by nearly, I think about 18 odd seconds.

So, yeah, six out of 10th of Valtry, and the fans also gave him a 6. Yuki Sonoda, qualified 10th, started 10th, finished 9th. I'm going to lock in a nine out of ten for Yuki Sonoda. Now that is also taking into account that he destroyed his car in qualifying. But I think he had pretty much a 10 out of 10 performance in the race this weekend. He managed to do a one-stop strategy, which is quite something to behold when there are some drivers that were going on three stops and all kinds of crazy strategies. is Yuki doing a one stop really put himself in a position to score points.

He scored a couple of them. And I think, yeah, I think nine is a very fair grade. I've also gone for a nine out of ten for Yuki Sonoda. I think it's basically a... What do you mean shock? You went for the same thing? I know. Even if I went for a seven, I knew that he was going because you love him.

Yeah. He's gone... It's basically a 10 out of 10 drive, but I have to take a grade off for him smashing the carer. But what a way to essentially like... turn his former round after the crash. Went so long on the medium tyre as well. You have to applaud that tyre management. Not something that particularly...

The tyre whisperer. Yeah, not something you really associate with Yuki Sonoda. 29 laps on the mediums. Exactly. Amazing stuff from Yuki there and made a very odd strategy work. So fair play to him. And the fans gave him an eight. Daniel Ricardo, qualified ninth, started ninth, finished 12. wealth. I've gone for a seven out of ten for Daniel Riccardo, which may sound very generous,

but I think he got absolutely shafted by strategy, and he's annoyed, and I think he has every right to be. I think on paper, you look at it and go, oh, Daniel Ricardo is finished, and I was way behind Sonoda. But if you actually look at the race, to be fair to him, he's had a shocking strategy. I don't know why they decided to do that at all, made absolutely no sense with his early stop, ended up in loads of traffic, and then that ruins your race straight away. And the fact that he managed to get all the way back to P12 showed that I think points would have definitely been possible if he'd have had not the most bizarre strategy ever. Yeah, it was a bizarre strategy.

I've also gone for a 7 out of 10 for Daniel Ricardo. It's a shame because he would have been right in the mix with Sonodra, I think. obviously had a great qualifying. They were 9th and 10th on the grid, which around Hungary, you're expecting to both be scoring points from that position. And to pit off mediums

a lap later than a few others that were on softs, lap seven, they pitted from the mediums. It's bizarre. You have to treat this as Monaco. This is a Monaco-esque track and you've got R.B. doing that. And you could even hear the sort of anguish

in Daniel Ricardo's voice over the team radio and he wanted the team to say over the radio yeah we messed up like guys do you not feel the same way and I'll assess all that usual PR BS and yeah it was a shame because Daniel doesn't usually pop off in interviews but he certainly was very critical of the team and I think it's very fair what he was saying as well

so yeah seven out of ten from me and a six from the fans Logan Sargent qualified 14th started 14th, finished 17th. It's a shame for Sergeant because he actually had a good qualifying. I've gone for a five out of 10 for Logan. I think it, yeah, the start ruined everything for him. It says the start haunts him, all this kind of stuff.

But at the end of the day, he had a bad start and that ruined any kind of progress he'd made during qualifying and meant that, yeah, he was pretty much stuck from there. So yeah, not the best of weekends for Logan, although it did look great in qualifying. And it was promising, and he was a 10th off album, I think it was in Q2. But a shame he couldn't have been closer in the race.

It was a shame. Yeah, I've gone for five out of ten for Logan Sargent. It's a shame, like you say, after his qualifying, because his qualifying was very good. I qualified a Red Bull for the eighth time this season, or whatever it was. And, yeah, just did it. didn't go to plan in the race, but to press the Logan Sergeant Bingo button, it's too little too late.

Damn, Savage Tommy is Savage. The fans gave Logan a five as well. Alex Albon, qualified 13th, started 13th, finished 14th. Gone for a six out of 10 for Alex Alburn. It was, yeah, not an awful race, giving him the benefit of the doubt that he's being his teammate. but odd strategy for the soft runners they didn't really make it work Williams with that kind of aspect to the race but you do have to give him credit the fact that the P1 curse hasn't hit him hard and he's at least managed to start the race unlike Pierre Gazley so good job I'll just I'll just take an average weekend that's all you know just bank those Alex because you're fighting the curse well as you say alpine are not um i've gone for a six out of ten as well for Alex it's interesting when

you look on paper at these soft runners going for that aggressive start you can kind of see maybe why they tried it in the in a sense of go out really fast gain a few positions pit early then be on reasonable hard fresh tires at the start of the stint and maybe you can then jump some of the longer medium runners i can kind of see it in a when you're just looking at strategy right it's not the most obviously now with hindsight you go well that didn't really work did it but i can kind of see why they tried it to especially these you know albon and magnus and the teams that they're not likely to score points unless they somehow thrust themselves at the front of a dRS train um so yeah i mean alex wasn't very happy either because the team told him a two stop then they told him a three stop

and then they told him a two stop again but obviously Alex had spent some of his tires by the time they had changed their minds once again and he was not a happy bunny either. So yeah, six out of ten from me and a five from the fans. Esteban Ocon, qualified 19th, started 19th, finished 18th. I've gone for a five

mainly because Alpine just didn't really look like they knew how to run a Formula One team this weekend. It was a disaster from the get-go really so I don't feel like I can really slander Ocon too much because there are a lot of operational mistakes from Alpine and then they're just stuck so I've gone straight down the middle for Ocon so have I five out of ten so difficult to rate because you do look at his teammate who's had another weekend to forget and Alpine have just been abysmal but it's very hard to know where they are

in the pack if they are that worst car again, which would be a surprise because they did make some improvements, but for whatever reason here. And Silverstone, they seem to have taken an absolutely enormous step back. So bad times for Alpine. Ever since Flavio Briatore came in and maybe started just throwing a few chairs. Or ever since we visited Endstone. Take your pick. Not all our thought, Tommy. We bring good vibes as well. Remember Carl. loss. We're not just bad curse five. Please, Formula One teams,

let us speak to your drivers. Okay, thank you. The fans gave Ocon a five. Pierre Ghazli. God, not again. Didn't qualify. Did he qualify? No, he didn't qualify.

Did he qualify? He did qualify, yeah. He did qualify. He was part of the Alpine disaster, where they stayed in the pit lanes for that final run. So what was he 20th? He was 20th behind Ockon, yeah.

It was not in the sheet, so you just, it's just blanks, you know what I mean? That's what you just sending me down the river with that one. But he started from the pit lane, and they didn't finish, because Gassley apparently cannot finish races anymore. But he did do a whopping 33 laps. I'm giving him a, oh, it's you, it's you. So you know that I'm even giving him a six or a seven, because I've said S. I've gone for a five for Pierre Gisley,

because he was as slow than knock on in qualifying, even though it was barely a lap. And, yeah, retired again, so it's hard to judge how good he was, but I don't think he was particularly miles better than O'Con during the race or anything, so I'm going for the same as O'Con with the five. Okay, I've gone for a six because he was up there in 10th.

I know he hadn't really done a pit stop or anything, but he was mixing it, it was mixing it with the big boys, and then it all went wrong. So you know what? Yeah. If Gassley can get anything, it'll be an extra little grade here on the driver ratings because that's about as much as he's getting

from Formula One at the moment. The fans gave him a five. Lance Stroll, qualified eighth, started, eighth, finished 10th. It is a seven out of ten for Lance Stroll from Moire. And he's having, and I keep saying this, a very quiet run of form at the moment, some might will start to talk about whether he is the number one driver in Astor Martin now, Tommy.

And I think you need to be able to accept this. As, you know, I know that you love Fernando Alonzo a lot and you have posters in your bedroom and all that kind of stuff. But Lance right now, I'm kidding. He was basically helped once again by Fernando Alonzo in the race. But still decent. scored a point. Aston Martin, I know where near the front four teams.

But Lance just quietly going about his business. So a seven. I've also gone for a seven for Lance Stroll. Yeah, he is doing what a good job and a job that if he'd done this for the last year and a half, he wouldn't get anywhere near the criticism that he does because he's there or thereabouts with Fernando Alonzo a lot of the time. He's qualified alongside him. How did that feel to say that out loud, mate?

What's that? Your goat. How did it feel for you to say that Lance Roll was now there or thereabouts for there or thereabouts with Fernando Alonso so well done mate just let me have this okay is the only thing I can attack you for but actually no I can attack you for all of your favourite drivers to be fair yuki with qualifying and then Max can't remember what Max was up to but we'll get on to that the fans gave Lance Stroll a seven

Fernando Alonzo qualified seventh started seventh finished 11th I have gone for a seven out of ten for Fernando Alonzo which is the same grade as Lance Stroll because he was going to beat Lance Roll in the race and get a point and naughty little lancy boy got let through by Fernando after Fernando did Fernando things

and held up the entire pack for him didn't pass Yuki and then didn't give Fernando Lanzo his place back how dare he because he needs a point to add to his thousands that he's got that mean, uh,

really mean anything. And I think his frustration with Aston Martin is very much showing now. Um, we've seen a few things in the, uh, in Park Fermé and stuff. Although I'm now starting to wonder whether this is Fernando Alonzo acting in that latest movie because apparently he is actually playing a

role in it. Um, and has been filming some scenes and stuff. So maybe like all these things that we see of him throwing his cap at his overalls out the way is actually just, him being Fernando Alonso and just wanting to take a starring role in this in this movie. We'll find out. But yeah, it's disappointing, but he's done a solid job despite finishing 11th,

which pains me to say that that's solid now, but that's where the Ashton Martin is. Fair enough. I was going to give him a six, but you've actually convinced me to a seven. So that's what I'm going to lock in. I think that, I mean, it's sad. and it speaks volumes, I think, that Fernando Alonzo is consistently now taking this role of Rear Gunner to Lance Stroll

to try and make his strategy work. Like, I can't believe I'm even watching this happen that Fernando, so obviously, Fernando and Lance both started on soft tires, but Lance went to lap 14 on those soft tires, whilst Fernando was basically trying to manage these, the mediums that he then went on to on laps, seven and holding everybody up in the meantime.

That's not what I, that's not what I, that's not what I, that's not what I think Fernando Alonzo is, is here to do. Shouldn't be doing it, no. And it is a shame, and I'm sure there are many reasons behind the scenes as to why it's happened, but we're not seeing those master class performances from Fernando now. And I think it's frustrating him. You can hear it on the team radio in practice or in qualifying when they're going, you know, how's the car, Fernando?

He's like, good luck. I think he said good luck or something at one point. He did. Yeah, it's a good luck about. To Lance. So, yeah, I think it's, I'm hoping he picks up form. Otherwise, he may well just get sick of Formula One and bounce. So fingers crossed for our sake, he does not.

And the fans gave Fernando a five. Oscar Piastri, qualified second, started, second, finish first. It is a five out of five for Oscar Piastri, a 10 out of 10. Congratulations. Oscar. A brilliant drive, slightly masked and tainted by what happened with the whole McLaren fiasco. But nothing should be taken away from what Oscar did in that race.

He got the lead at the start. He maintained the gap. He was so much better on his tyres. Some people saying at the end, he couldn't catch Lando and he lost a couple of seconds on slightly fresher tyres. but whatever. He still did everything he needed to do to win that race apart from when his own team decided to undercut him.

That was the only flaw in his whole thing and that's not something he had control of. So yeah, it has to be a 10 out of 10. An amazing weekend for Oscar and I think it is a very promising one as well. I think this might well be the making of Piastri now where he's getting on top of his tire wear issues which was been the one thing that's held him back. He's always had great one-lap pace.

I know Lando is still quite far ahead in the head-to-head, but he's there. And look, if he gets the race pace, I think we could be seeing a very interesting inter-team battle moving forward with this one. Yeah, I've gone for a 10 out of 10 as well. Absolutely amazing drive from Oscar. And it's a shame that there's certain areas of the internet

that thinks he's been gifted, win because he certainly hasn't he fought for it at the start made a brilliant move and then McLaren for no reason at all that we've said so many times in the podcast didn't pay him first when they should have done and then Oscar would have had a plenty of you know a lead to probably be fine it would have been difficult for Lando to pass maybe he would have but we'll never know because it didn't happen and Oscar was really good at managing his tyres which is something he struggled with and you're right

his form it's almost because of their age you almost feel like sometimes you kind of feel like oh yeah they're a young pair of like Lando and Oscar together and Lando's been in Formula One for quite a while now Oscar's very very very new and quite scary the potential that

Oscar Piastri could have if he's here already you know bagging a race win quite quickly bagged a sprint win as well and like you say it could get very spicy at McLaren because it's going to be very close between them. It certainly is, and no surprise, the fans also gave Oscar a 10 out of 10. Lando Norris, qualified first, started first, finished second.

I have gone for a 9 out of 10 for Lando Norris. Nine is a good grade, and he deserves it for having great pace. but he's going to be disappointed again with how the race has gone. Of course he had to give up that win, but he should have led at the start. I saw a very damning statistic. Exactly the same one I was going to bring up, I think. Yeah.

That not only, you know, I think you'll probably take some comfort as a Charler-fan because people use to kind of, say that Charles can't convert a pole, but Lando is five poles. He's not actually led the first lap, never mind won the race, which is, ouch, a tough statistic. And actually watching back the race, I do wonder if Lando maybe would have been better off letting Oscar through straight away and then maybe argued his case that he could attack and go, well, let me pass him then.

And McLaren may well have let them race, because that is their kind of philosophy anyway. So yeah, it's still a nine, though, because he's done a very good job. But I think he started to get like, yeah, a little bit, a bit nervous of this kind of form of being so, so, so, so quick. You can't deny his pace, but he really needs to start winning race, basically like start winning races now. I've gone for a nine out of tennis well for Lando. Just to speak on your point of letting Oscar through at the beginning and then going on the attack, I can absolutely understand from his perspective why he didn't. He was three and a half, well, three seconds, I think clear at the beginning of that stint.

And Oscar wasn't really catching, maybe he got to about two and a half. But no, no racing driver who does not have the full picture of how this race is panning out is going to lift off that aggressively with 20 odd laps to go, lose three seconds. when you've got the likes of Max Verstapp and Lewis Hamilton, etc. in this race. So I can completely understand the predicament that Lando was in, where he's like, okay, well, if Oscar comes and catches me, I'll let him through. And he was probably thinking that Oscar would with fresher tires, but it almost played into Oscar's hands in a weird way that he didn't because then it delayed the time that Lando would then eventually get past, I don't know,

it was just a weird set of circumstances. but Lando still had an amazing weekend. It's just, he now has the same amount of race wins as Oscar Piazri, his teammate, which should that really be the case if we look at the last eight or so races? Probably not. Lando's been the faster driver and it's just not worked out for him. And he's going to have to figure out his starts. I think that is genuinely something that perhaps he does need to work on slightly,

just purely because that stat is not a coincidence that he has. hasn't led the first lap in in five of his pole positions and you say on it do I take any kind of you know comfort from that well let's you know if he gets to 24 pole positions and only six race wins then then we'll talk but um for now Lando I think Lando take six race wins true very true um for now it's not panic stations he has closed the gap to to Max Verstappen in the championship and for those people that I've seen people replying to a tweet where I said, oh, imagine if Lando doesn't win the championship by seven, uh, or you know, misses out on the championship by seven points or less or

whatever I said. Uh, and people love to take that so literally where I'm like, well, it is a possibility. It is a possibility that that could happen. And then everybody would go back to this moment and go, oh, should he, he'd be a champion if he didn't. And it's bizarre that we're looking at a McLaren package right now that is the quickest car and we've got how many races left 10 is this is the problem how many races we got left Tommy 11 12 let me have a look one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven races left so only just over half the season people are trying to say that a 69 point gap is not is insurmountable has anyone seen Formula One before realistically how many times it can happen

because if Max, and this is another interesting story with the whole team orders thing, if Max had smashed his car and broken it in his move with Hamilton, we could have had a 25 point swing. That's the third of that lead gone already

in one race. So it is definitely doable. I know it seems laughable because we go, oh Max just happens invincible, but the Red Bulls is not and they're not very good at the moment has to be said. You can see the frustration.

Sorry, in my brain, I said 69. It's not. That was as if he was going to win. He's actually 76. 76 points is the gap. So Max still has three race wins and a tiny bit ahead of that. But this is absolutely doable. People again saying, oh, Lando's not championship material.

How many Formula 1 champions have we had in the last 20 or 30 years that have had the best car and been able to deliver, even if they're not the best driver? on the grid. Exactly. We've had plenty worse combinations, which I'm not going to go into names, that have won world championships with the best car. And if McLaren have the best car for the next 11 races, very possible they get one-toes.

Max Verstappen might boil over and have a DNF here or there. It's exactly what you said about McLaren, stop pretending your underdogs. You've got the best car. You've had the best car for five or six races now. we've gone to every different type of track in terms of like you can be good at Silverstone and you can be the best car at Silverstone and the best car at Hungary you have the best car and the fastest car so I know everyone roasted that that quote from Bonotto sorry to bring up

where they said we could win the last blah blah blah races everyone laughed but that's when Red Bull were quicker and they didn't win one but McLaren could like if they actually get their beep together and the drivers do and the team deliver there's absolutely no reason why they can't because max was stopping in the best car did it last year won every race pretty much in a row um so yeah it's it's not it's not this far-fetched thing and for all the people that think it's absolutely far-fetched um i i just hope mcclaren don't have that attitude as well, that, oh, no, Max is no way catchable because that's just a ridiculous thing to say. It's, it's motorsport, it's competitive motorsport, and when there's

a chance, there's a chance. Anything can happen, right? You have one D&F for Max Verstapp and Lando wins the Grand Prix, that's a 25, maybe 26 point swing. It is just to think anything other than it's on is slightly baffling to me. But anyway, we move on now, as Lando Norris called a from the fans as well. To Carlos Sines. Qualified fourth, started fourth, finished sixth. I have gone for a seven out of ten for Carlos Sines. I think it was a solid performance

for what that Ferrari is able to produce, which is not a lot these days. They're still in Formula A, so I'll take that over the Aston Martin downfall that we were just speaking about. But it's... That's all it is, really, they're just lingering, maybe McLaren and Red Bull come together and then Ferrari take a victory.

That's the only way, or if they all just start tripping over each other, or we have like a crazy race or changeable conditions race, that seems to be what Ferrari are relying on now. They're not there in qualifying or the race to be fighting for pole position. They are not. I've gone for a seven out of ten for Carlos as well. Great quality to be ahead of Shal, but didn't deliver it in the race. kind of to be away from that kind of formula A pack if you like. But this is like, this is classic Carlos, I think, that even on an off day, he picks up really good points and delivers the best result.

That's what we've kind of come to see from Carlos Science. So even though it's not the most spectacular race, you can go, well, you know, P6 and points on the board is exactly what for our need at the moment. so it's a good performance. Yeah, he had a great quality, but sadly, similar to I say, like Logan Sargent, lost quite a lot of that advantages that he had right on lap one and had a poor start and it put him on the back foot. But he had a solid race from there and, yeah, P6 is about all he could probably have wished for from there.

The fans also gave Carlos a seven. Charlotte Clerk qualified sixth, started sixth, finished fourth. I have gone for an eight. out of 10 for Charlotte Claire. It's close to a 9 but not quite. I think he's done a very good job to be fighting with

Vestappan and Hamilton in the race at that stage and he's delivered a very good result in a car that's not quite there and that is what we expected from them at the start of the season

so Ferrari fans will be praying that this is the kind of the norm now that they are after that terrible form it has to be said after after Monaco and that both both the drivers at Ferrari have kind of delivered really good constructors championship points again yeah I've gone for an eight out of ten for shal as well I don't think it's that clear of what Carlos managed this weekend so no delusion here I think it was a decent race as you say he was leading at one point I prayed for a red flag, didn't happen.

But it was a much more positive when you look at the recent form performance from Charlotte Clare and Ferrari. And it's just nice to not see him get lapped. So, yeah, 8 out of 10. And the fans also gave him an 8. George Russell, qualified 17th, started 17th, finished 8th. I have gone for a 7. seven out of ten for George Russell. Of course, wasn't the most ideal qualifying where his team did not fuel him up enough to basically get out of Q1s. That was incredibly unfortunate for him. And then had a very strong race went long, which was the right decision, especially when you're in a car that is much quicker than the Formula B competitors around you. And then, sadly, for him, got beaten by Perez. And he was actually quite surprised that he got beaten by Perez, which,

which I'm not sure if that says too much about what they think of Perez's form at the moment. But still scored some points. It was a decent drive-through from a poor qualifying. I got for a six out of ten for George Russell. I think he has a part to play in the fact that he didn't set a decent lap earlier. And I know it's a big mistake that they didn't fuel him enough. He maybe could have set a better time early in the session because I know Hamilton was quicker.

So he's come through the field, but a track like Hungary all unravels, doesn't it? If you qualify poorly, so it's just about a six for me. Okay, the fans also gave George a six. Lewis Hamilton, qualified fifth, started fifth, finished third. I've gone for a nine out of ten for Lewis Hamilton. another very good drive hopefully um you know for his sake this is the turn of form because it's not had the best start to the season it has to be said and then brilliantly won at silverstone

and then another really really good race here um you know i think he delivered the maximum Mercedes didn't look to be anywhere near what they were in the last two races or or at silverstone when we thought, and I must admit, I thought that they'd got this upgrade package, they might have thrust themselves up towards the McLarence again, but they were not there. So for Hamilton, still bag a podium is very impressive indeed. I've also gone for a nine out of ten for Lewis.

I think that this weekend was a bit of a wake-up call, I suppose, for Mercedes, who of course got given the win in Austria by the clash. Russell wasn't close to fighting Vastappen or Norris. Then you had Silverstone, very strange conditions. And again, you don't really see a test bed for maybe where that upgrade package is. You come to Hungary and I think they had a bit of a realization there that they still have got a bit of work to do there.

So yeah, but still a great drive from Hamilton. Lucky that he didn't have his wheel ripped off when Vestappen went flying over him into term one. But I don't think he could have done much more. So that's why I've gone for a nine. And the fans also gave Lewis a nine. Sergio Perez, qualified 16th, started 16th, finished 7th. I've gone for a six out of 10 for Sergio Perez. Of course, crashing and qualifying has to be taken into account with this grade

because it's put the team on the back foot, it's put him on the back foot again. But that being said, the reason why I've gone for a six is because he had a very solid drive, which is quite nice to see for Perez, who of course has been in such a hole. and it's been sad to see and for him to just do a drive that we all kind of expect he would maybe do to go from 16th to 7th not get tangled up with anybody beat Russell I think it was a solid drive but you have to also take into account he'd bin the car again so six I've gone for a five out of 10 for sergey Perez to to put that much pressure on yourself again in qualifying to have such a high profile crash

and gets all the eyes on you and all the chatter again and while he has had a good race and made it through the pack he's still finished 20 seconds off max when max arguably has had maybe one of the worst races he's had in the last four years which makes you kind of you know it's all right going oh he's actually had quite a good race and you want to kind of grade him highly. But when you look at it, you think this was Sergio Perez's chance, a once in a blue moon chance to actually finish ahead of Max Verstappen in a race because Max was not doing

the best of jobs and had incidents and had a really poor strategy as well. So that's why I've gone for a five. Okay, the fans gave Perez a five. Max Verstappen qualified third, started third, finished fifth I have gone for a seven out of ten four max has happened this will be the controversial

grade of the drive ratings because I think personally in my opinion I think a lot of people can maybe vote based on his team radio antics and all that kind of stuff but I don't think that actually comes into giving his grade because his strategy

while he was over the top in his sort of annoyance with his team, it was an incredibly bad strategy and he was, should have been fighting the McLaren's and they dropped him into, you know, to be stuck essentially, which made him make some moves and then his move with Hamilton, of course, at the end. Not his finest move. I've watched it a few times actually and I do think that it's initially I was like oh it should have been a penalty

and now I actually don't think it is I think it was the right call to give it as a racing incident and I think Hamilton himself even admitted it was a racing incident although he still had a little cheeky dig at Max saying that he'll never admit any kind of fault anyway but yeah

it's a seven out of ten for Max which I think is as far as I can remember, I cannot remember a race that he's kind of delivered this badly on since about 2020, maybe, which shows how good his form has been. Singapore?

No, but he came through the field, didn't he got shafted by strategy and still ended up quite good though, didn't he have back-to-back terrible Singapore's though? I swear like the one, maybe I'm tripping. Well, last, maybe in 2020, I can't remember, but, oh yeah, sorry, no, of course, yeah, he had the lockups and stuff. So yeah, probably that was the last race that he actually had a bad race. Bad race. I say a bad race, seven out of ten. It's not, it wasn't a bad race. And he's still,

and this is the sign of a great champion that he's had probably, you know, his worst weekend in so long and caused so much controversy and had a crash and all this kind of stuff. And he's barely lost any points to his championship rival and delivered a solid fifth place when the car wasn't there and he had a really poor strategy. So it's actually pretty decent. Yep, I have also gone for a seven out of 10 for Max for Stappen. I can't possibly give him the same grade as Perez, although I feel like there's maybe a little bit more of like a, oh, that was all right from Perez considering what's, you know, but either or seven out of 10 for Max. Um, Yeah, I'm not downgrading him at all for him being angry on the team radio.

Like, that doesn't change the way, obviously, there were incidents with Hamilton, whatever, but that needs to be judged on its own. You can't throw in team radio this and team radio that, in my opinion, as well. He still finished fifth in a car that is not the fastest car as well. If it finished fifth and it was the Red Bull from Bahrain, it's probably like a five, but it's not. and the car is slower than that. So yeah, it's going to be a seven.

I can see how people can grade him pretty much every number, probably from about four all the way to about eight. So I'm sure this will collectively bring everybody together. Yeah, you do that because the fans gave him a six as the overall. But how was it split, Tommy? Let's have a look how it was split. So 24% of fans gave him a six. 18% a 7, 22% of 5.

There were 3% that gave Mozilla. So it wasn't as extreme as, I think it was Austria. But yeah, it was still, yeah, six was just about. So people did want to give him. It was very close between a 5 and a 6, but I think 5 is incredibly harsh if you're giving Perraza, 5 or 6 personally. Yeah, exactly.

But people have their own ways of the numbers and what they mean. We're all allowed an opinion, aren't we? Opinions and fun here at driver ratings. Okay, and finally, who is our P1? Well, my one has to be Oscar Piastri, because it's the only driver that got a 10 out of 10 from me. So well done, Oscar. One of many, I am sure, to come over the next few years,

and he should be very proud, and I hope he genuinely feels like a truly deserved, race winner because he was and I will not stand for the just outright ridiculousness online saying that he did not deserve to win that race and he was gifted it because that is rubbish. Here here I've also obviously gone P1 Oscar Piastri because he was also my only 10 out of 10 and yeah a thoroughly deserved drive even with all the controversy you cannot take anything away from him it was a brilliant drive and it is a shame that he didn't get the kind of maybe extreme celebrations but the good thing is it will definitely not be his last because

he is still very early in his career and it's a very scary prospect of how good he's going to be in the future I'm going to be very interested when he does get his second race win whether that team radio will be more related than or that is actually Oscar Piastri's race winning it might just be Oscar Piastri yeah thanks guys cheers Yeah, really glad to top FP2. Thanks so much. Sweet dreams. So yeah, it'll be interesting to see.

But anyway, Tommy, what are your final thoughts, please, sir? Final thoughts are spa next. And my God, is that duer bang a spa? Please. Spar. You're a great track. Do something. It's literally the meme of the guy poking it with a stick and saying,

come on, do something. Please, spa. because it's awesome to drive on video games, but my God, when was the last good race there? I'm going to look up the weather right now. Friday and Saturday raining. Love it. Okay, well, that will change 500 times because it's spa.

But either or, see you very soon, everybody. Lots of love. Thank you for all the wonderful support as always, and we'll see you for the Belgian Grand Prix race week. Pretty much tomorrow, I imagine. Bye! P1 is a Stack production and part of the A-cast's creator network. Thank you.