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| All smiles! (Makes a difference from the frowny Malaysian top trio... and Kimi did smile at one point!) Source: AP |
1. Fernando Alonso (last week: 13th, up twelve
spots) (Season high: 1st, low: 13th)
It was simply the perfect race from Fernando Alonso as he
emphatically bounced back from his early exit in Malaysia. Having been
outqualified by Felipe Massa at the last four races, Alonso edged out his
team-mate in qualifying before executing a flawless race. There is simply
nothing else to say! Note: this was
Alonso’s 31st career victory, which moves him up to =4th
all-time.
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| A passionate celebration from Alonso Source: Getty Images |
2. Kimi Räikkönen (last week: 11th, up ten spots)
(Season high: 1st, low: 11th)
Just like Alonso, Kimi Räikkönen has found himself regaining
all the ground he lost in the Power Rankings last time out in Malaysia. The
Finn recovered well from a sluggish getaway and some mid-race contact with
Sergio Pérez, which left him with significant front wing damage, to edge out Lewis
Hamilton through the final round of pit stops for the runner-up spot. All things
considered, an excellent result.
3. Lewis Hamilton (last week: 3rd, no change)
(Season high: 3rd, low: 6th)
A hugely important race for Lewis Hamilton. Firstly, he
roared to Mercedes’ first pole of the season – at a venue which Nico Rosberg
dominated last year, before also comfortably beating him in the race. Yes,
Rosberg retired before half-distance but Hamilton was already a fair distance
up the road from his team-mate. There is already a notable gap between the two
drivers and Hamilton could not have dreamed for a better start to his Mercedes
career (well, other than winning the three races) when he signed for them in
September last year.
4. Sebastian Vettel (last week: 4th, no change)
(Season high: 4th, low 4th)
Three races in and Sebastian Vettel has found himself ranked
4th in all of them. Opting for the counter-strategy, Vettel found
himself starting in the midfield and having to keep his nose clean in the opening
stages. An important pit-stop battle win over Nico Hülkenberg released him and
he eventually finished just fractions off the podium after an impressive and
spirited charge on the soft tyres in the final handful of laps. It has been a
difficult three weeks for Vettel after the Sepang controversy and it will no
doubt have pleased him to see Mark Webber encounter a miserable weekend.
5. Daniel Ricciardo (last week: =17th, up twelve
spots) (Season high: 5th, low: 18th)
This was Daniel Ricciardo’s best weekend in F1. Having
qualified sixth in Bahrain last year, an awful start saw his good Saturday
efforts evaporate. The Aussie made sure not to let lightning strike twice as he
comfortably held his own in the top ten in the early stages before methodically
making his way through the field in the second half of the race as all the
various strategies played themselves out. In fact, was in not for having to
change his nosecone at an earlier-than-planned first stop after contact with
Rosberg, he might have even finished ahead of Jenson Button and Massa.
Nonetheless, a career-best result comes at a critical time, as it appeared that
Jean-Eric Vergne was beginning to firmly assert himself as the top dog in the
STR stable.
6. Jenson Button (last week: 5th, down one spot)
(Season high: 5th, low 12th)
JB falls one spot mainly due to Ricciardo’s outstanding
weekend as opposed to any drop in his own performance level. A very controlled
drive saw Button manage to make one stop less than all his rivals (only
team-mate Sergio Pérez made the same two-stop strategy) by conserving his
tyres. While he did lack pace in the middle stages of the race, a solid 5th
place finish is an excellent result given the current capabilities of the
McLaren.
7. Paul di Resta (last week: =17th, up ten spots)
(Season high: 7th, low: 17th)
Paul di Resta bounces back into the top ten after his
Malaysian disappointment. He overcame an opening lap clash with his team-mate,
which saw him lose several places, to score some solid points in eighth. After
being firmly put in the shade by his team-mate in Melbourne, di Resta has
bounced back well and is putting in the reliable drives he needs to turn heads
at the larger teams. He still just needs a little more luck in races.
8. Jules Bianchi (last week: 6th, down two spots)
(Season high: 6th, low: 10th)
Our young French hero retains his place firmly in the Power
Ranking top ten. Jules Bianchi was once again the top dog in the
Marussia-Caterham battle in both qualifying and the race, although Charles Pic
was significantly closer to him. The pair of them were, in turn, a lot closer
to the Williams cars in race conditions.
9. Nico Hülkenberg (last week: 10th, up one spot)
(Season high: 9th, low: 15th)
It was great to see The Hulk leading the race early on as he
managed to overtake fellow medium-compound-tyre starters Vettel and Button in
the opening stint. After losing in a straight pit-stop battle to Red Bull, he
fell behind Vettel and ran second until Sauber gambled on using the soft tyre
mid-race which saw him plummet to the bottom of the top ten by the end of the
race. I was going to place Hülkenberg 10th in these rankings as well
but that may have been a tad harsh given the poor strategy call is likely to
have come from the team.
10. Felipe Massa (last week: 7th, down three
spots) (Season high: 3rd, low: 10th)
Massa slides to the bottom of the top ten after finishing a
staggering 40 seconds behind his race-winning team-mate, despite hustling him
in the opening laps. While Massa did lose time during the first round of
pit-stops, he lacked the pace of his team-mate throughout the race and almost
found himself under pressure from Ricciardo in the dying stages.
11. Charles Pic (last week: 19th, up eight spots)
(Season high: 11th, low 19th)
Pic comes agonizingly close to breaking into the top ten in
his Caterham after his most competitive showing of the season so far. Although
sill beaten by Bianchi, he finished only a handful of seconds behind his fellow
Frenchman as he seemingly extracted the maximum possible from the car.
=12. Romain Grosjean (last week: 8th, down four spots)
(Season high: 8th, low: 12th) & Nico Rosberg (last week: 2nd, down ten spots)
(Season high: 2nd, low: 12th)
A similar tale for both Grosjean and Rosberg. Firmly put in
the shade by their team-mates in both qualifying and the race, the only difference
was that Rosberg never saw the checkered flag. Both drivers would have fancied
themselves as being the top dog in their respective teams but the pair of them
have had difficult starts to their seasons.
14. Jean-Eric Vergne (last week: 9th, down six spots)
(Season high: 7th, low: 15th)
After spending the first two Power Rankings in the top ten,
JEV slips down after a hugely disappointing weekend in which the tables were
well and truly turned at Toro Rosso. Massively outqualified by Ricciardo, JEV
was not helped by Webber spinning him which caused him to lose time and
downforce.
15. Mark Webber (last week: 1st, down thirteen
spots) (Season high: 1st, low: 14th)
An all-round dreadful weekend for Webber. The team didn’t
put enough fuel in his car in qualifying which eventually saw him excluded from
the session and start from the pit lane. His drive through the field was very
reminiscent of his 2011 drive in Shanghai until his coming together with
Vergne, for which the stewards deemed him at fault for the incident and handed
him a three place grid drop for next weekend. After one basic error in
qualifying, his wheel wasn’t fully attached in the race leading to his DNF and the
inevitable conspiracy theories flying around. I had initially pegged Webber as
=12th with Rosberg and Grosjean, but the incident with JEV cost him
a drop in the rankings as well.
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| "Three wheels on my wagon" for Webber Source: Reuters |
16. Valtteri Bottas (last week: 11th, down five
spots) (Season high: 11th, low: 16th)
Valtteri Bottas slips back down to sixteenth after a hugely
anonymous weekend. As I have already stated in these Power Rankings, Williams have
produced a disappointing car and the best Bottas can hope for is to beat his
team-mate, which he has done at all three races.
17. Sergio Pérez (last week: 16th, down one spot)
(Season high: 12th, low: 17th)
A difficult race for Pérez who, like Hülkenberg, suffered
from attempting to run the soft tyres in the middle of the race: he was
relatively close to Button until the first round of stops but ended up almost
half a minute behind him. Checo’s McLaren career has yet to take off and the
pressure will soon be mounting.
18. Adrian Sutil (last week: 14th, down four
spots) (Season high: 5th, low: 18th)
Leading the race in Melbourne seems like such a long time
ago. Sutil was another driver to have a weekend to forget. Outqualified by di
Resta, he actually found himself ahead of his team-mate by the end of lap one
as the pair made contact (for which Sutil was probably blameless given where di
Resta was on the track – rather like Perez/Räikkönen incident). Unfortunately,
just three laps later, he was the victim of a Takuma Sato style attack from an
out of control Esteban Gutierrez and that was that.
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| Gutierrez slams into Sutil Source: Crash.net |
19. Max Chilton (last week: 21st, up two spots)
(Season high: 19th, low: 21st) & 20. Giedo van
der Garde (last week: 20th, no
change) (Season high: 20th, low 21st)
I could almost copy and paste what I wrote last week but
just switch the positions. Both drivers were again comfortably outpaced by
their respective team-mates but they also kept their noses clean. At this stage
of their careers, it is all about gaining invaluable experience.
21. Esteban Gutiérrez
(last week: 15th, down six spots) (Season
high: 15th, low: 21st)
After two steady races, the Mexican rookie committed a very
basic and costly error. He simply misjudged his braking at the end of the long
straight and ploughed into Sutil. Had no choice but to accept full
responsibility for the incident and will take a five place grid drop in
Bahrain. He can be forgiven the odd big mistake given his rookie status which
keeps him from dropping to the bottom of the rankings…
22. Pastor Maldonado (last week: 22nd, no change)
(Season high: 22nd, low: 22nd)
Three editions of F1 Power Rankings and three times it has
been Maldonado propping up the table. Edged out by Bottas right at the death,
his extremely underwhelming start to the season continues.
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