The second consecutive sprint round in Miami saw the third different race winner and third different winning team over the first six rounds of the 2024 season.
A handful of drivers showed consistently strong form across the three days. But one driver was outstanding for all the wrong reasons.
Here are the RaceFans driver ratings for the Miami Grand Prix.
A guide to RaceFans’ driver ratings system
RaceFans’ driver ratings system assesses driver performance across all three days of a grand prix weekend. Naturally, performances during competitive sessions – qualifying, sprint races and grands prix – will carry the most weight to their rating.
However, practice performance can affect a driver’s weekend rating in the event of a major mistake, such as a crash, consistent errors throughout practice sessions or if a driver shows a notably impressive speed throughout all free practice sessions relative to their team mate.
The system attempts to take into account the relative performance of each driver’s car and the expected results from that, meaning that a driver who wins a race in a car clearly superior to the rest of the field may not necessarily score as highly as a driver who claims a low points finish in a midfield car.
Ratings also attempt to take into account mitigating factors outside of a driver’s control. If a driver is forced to miss considerable track time due to car problems, is the victim of being blocked in qualifying, finishes far lower than expected because of a heavily botched pit stop or suffers any other misfortune they cannot be reasonably expected to control, their rating should not be penalised.
RaceFans rates each driver’s weekend performance on a scale of 0 to 10, where ‘5’ is considered to be a typically average weekend performance from a typically average Formula 1 driver.
Here is a rough guide to each possible score:
N/A – Not applicable – No rating is given as the driver did not sufficiently participate in the competitive sessions
0 – Disqualified – Only in the most extreme instance where a driver’s conduct disqualifies them from participation
1 – Appalling – An appalling display that brings a driver’s competency under immediate question
2 – Awful – A very, very poor performance of repeated errors with almost no redeeming qualities
3 – Very bad – Far more negatives than positives across the weekend which a driver should be very disappointed with
4 – Underperformance – Driver failed to achieve the base level expected for a Formula 1 driver
5 – Acceptable – The standard level of performance that should be expected from an F1 driver
6 – Good – A decent overall performance across the weekend, but not one of the best
7 – Very good – A strong performance across the weekend that any driver should be very pleased with
8 – Brilliant – A truly great weekend where the driver stood out as one of the very best of the field
9 – Exceptional – An outstanding performance that ranks as one of the best, if not the very best, of the entire season
10 – Legendary – One of the few all-time greatest performances by a driver in the history of Formula 1
Max Verstappen – 7/10
Sprint race start: Pole
Sprint race finish: Winner
Qualified: Pole (+3 places ahead of team mate, -0.219s)
Start: Held position
Strategy: One-stop (M-H)
Finished: 2nd (+2 places ahead of team mate)
▲ Secured sprint race pole despite “terrible” lap
▲ Controlled sprint race to win by three seconds
▲ Backed up sprint pole by taking pole for grand prix
▶ Led early but struggled with understeer throughout first stint
▼ Suffered minor damage by hitting bollard at chicane
▶ Lost lead with Safety Car deployment but couldn’t keep pace with Norris after restart
Verstappen dominated the opening two days of the Miami Grand Prix weekend and looked like he would take a routine victory on Sunday until his error led to him clattering the bollard at the chicane. Although Norris had some good luck to get the lead from Verstappen, the world champion could not match the McLaren on the hards and accepted he was beaten on merit after the race. Still, Verstappen had more to be satisfied with in his performance than he had to be frustrated with.
Sergio Perez – 5/10
Sprint race start: 3rd
Sprint race finish: 3rd
Qualified: 4th (-3 places behind team mate, +0.219s)
Start: -1 place
Strategy: Two-stop (M-H-M)
Finished: 4th (-2 places behind team mate)
▶ Beaten to front row for sprint by Leclerc after admitting to not “maximising” soft tyres
▶ Lost a place to Ricciardo at start of sprint race but reclaimed it to finish third
▶ Qualified fourth behind both Ferraris on grand prix grid after losing tenth with error
▶ Almost took out team mate at turn one then pitted for hards early
▶ Pitted for used mediums under SC to restart sixth
▶ Held off Hamilton over final stint to finish fifth
A very average weekend for Perez. He did not make any major errors, but a couple of small mistakes at crucial times prevented him from better results. He was very fortunate he did not wipe out Verstappen at the start of the grand prix and while he was only seven seconds from his team mate by the finish, he had lost out to both Ferraris too. Not his best performance of the year so far.
Lewis Hamilton – 6/10
Sprint race start: 12th
Sprint race finish: 16th
Qualified: 8th (-1 place behind team mate, +0.04s)
Start: +1 place
Strategy: One-stop (H-M)
Finished: 6th (+2 places ahead of team mate)
▶ Eliminated from SQ2 but virtually matched team mate’s best time
▼ Lucky to not get a penalty for lunge at start of sprint race but penalised for pit lane speeding
▶ Lined up alongside team mate in eighth on grand prix grid
▶ Started on hards and battled with Hulkenberg before pitting just before SC
▲ Passed Tsunoda after restart but couldn’t find way by Perez to finish sixth
Hamilton described his Miami Grand Prix experience as “the best day of Racing I’ve had this year” and it is easy to see why as he secured his first top six finish of the season. While not able to beat his team mate over a single lap across the weekend, his race pace was certainly superior, especially on the hards. But his sprint race performance was not Hamilton at his best or his most aware by any means.
George Russell – 5/10
Sprint race start: 11th
Sprint race finish: 12th
Qualified: 7th (+1 place ahead of team mate, -0.04s)
Start: -3 places
Strategy: One-stop (M-H)
Finished: 8th (-2 places behind team mate)
▶ Failed to reach SQ3 by 0.013s but just beat team mate
▼ Dropped four places in the sprint to finish 14th on the road
▶ Lined up just ahead of team mate on grand prix grid in seventh
▼ Lost three places at the start but passed Tsunoda
▶ Restarted ninth but could not find a way by Tsunoda to finish eighth
Not a great weekend for Russell even in spite of the fact that Mercedes seem to be slipping further away from their rivals. Race starts seemed to be a particular weakness for him in Miami, leaving him stuck in DRS trains perhaps lower down the order than he should have been. He didn’t have the pace of his team mate on the hard tyres and had to settle for being beaten by Tsunoda by the end of the race.
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Charles Leclerc – 7/10
Sprint race start: 2nd
Sprint race finish: 2nd
Qualified: 2nd (+1 place ahead of team mate, -0.073s)
Start: Held position
Strategy: One-stop (M-H)
Finished: 3rd (+2 places ahead of team mate)
▼ Lost almost all practice time after spinning out at turn 16
▲ Secured front row start for sprint race behind Verstappen
▲ Finished second in sprint a handful of seconds behind Verstappen
▲ Achieved another front row for grand prix just behind Verstappen
▶ Passed by Piastri in early laps then pitted early for hards, restarting in third after SC
▶ Unable to get within DRS range of Verstappen ahead but took final podium place
Leclerc’s Miami weekend began in a terrible way when he lost almost the whole practice session with a silly spin that in the vast majority of corners would have been completely harmless. But he never looked like he had been affected by that lack of track data as he maximised his Friday and Saturday results. Although he couldn’t keep Piastri behind him, he kept within DRS range until pitting. While he could not keep pace with the two cars ahead of him after the Safety Car, third was absolutely a result to be very proud of.
Carlos Sainz Jnr – 6/10
Sprint race start: 5th
Sprint race finish: 5th
Qualified: 3rd (-1 place behind team mate, +0.073s)
Start: -1 place
Strategy: One-stop (M-H)
Finished: 5th (-2 places behind team mate)
▶ Qualified fifth for sprint race, three tenths slower than team mate
▶ Ran fifth all sprint race to finish behind Ricciardo
▲ Secured third on the grand prix grid just behind team mate
▶ Ran long first stint before pitting for mediums just before SC and restarting fifth
▶ Battled with Piastri, eventually passing at hairpin after minor collision
▼ Finished fourth but fell to fifth after penalty for Piastri clash
Sainz had a decent enough weekend in Miami. Not as quick as his team mate throughout the weekend and having to contend with an improved McLaren team, Sainz still put in a decent performance over the three days. Fourth would have been a good result, beating a Red Bull, however he lost that due to an understandable penalty for sliding into Piastri, even if it was nothing egregious.
Lando Norris – 7/10
Sprint race start: 9th
Sprint race finish: 20th
Qualified: 5th (+1 place ahead of team mate, -0.081s)
Start: -1 place
Strategy: One-stop (M-H)
Finished: Winner (+12 places ahead of team mate)
▶ Only McLaren driver to have full upgrades package for weekend
▼ Quickest in SQ2 but made several mistakes on SQ3 lap to line up ninth for sprint
▶ Eliminated from sprint as innocent victim of turn one crash
▲ Took fifth on the grand prix grid just ahead of team mate
▶ Fell to sixth at the start but managed his tyres well to extend opening stint
▶ Gifted perfect chance to pit under Safety Car to emerge still in the race lead
▲ Showed unmatched pace on the hards after restart to pull away and claim maiden win
Norris has been long overdue for his first grand prix victory, but it’s also fair to say that he has had better weekend performances in his career than Miami. He did not come close to maximising his result in Friday’s sprint qualifying and never got the chance to make amends in the sprint race itself after he was wiped out at turn one.
He had a decent Saturday qualifying and then demonstrated how strong his upgraded McLaren’s race pace was over the second half of the grand prix. However, he did not overtake a single car on-track to achieve his first win and certainly benefited from the Safety Car being deployed when it was. Would he have caught and passed those ahead had he restarted further back? Quite possibly. But while he earns credit for being the quickest driver on track over the second half of the grand prix, he was likely in the quickest car on the day also.
Oscar Piastri – 8/10
Sprint race start: 6th
Sprint race finish: 6th
Qualified: 6th (-1 place behind team mate, +0.081s)
Start: +3 places
Strategy: Two-stop (M-H-M)
Finished: 13th (-12 places behind team mate)
▶ Did not receive full benefit of upgrades as team mate did
▲ Out-qualified team mate in sprint qualifying to line up sixth
▶ Held position throughout sprint to finish sixth
▶ Secured sixth on the grid for grand prix just behind team mate
▲ Jumped from sixth to third on first lap, then passed Leclerc for second soon after
▶ Restarted in fourth and battled with Sainz
▶ Fell to last after suffering front wing damage in clash with Sainz at hairpin
▲ Recovered to finish 13th, missing out on points
Although the focus, quite rightly, was on his team mate in Miami, it’s easy to overlook how good a weekend Piastri had. Not having quite the same machinery as his team mate over the weekend, Piastri was still matching Norris in grand prix qualifying. He had a brilliant start to the grand prix and looked like he was in the fight for a podium and maybe even the win. However, the Safety Car did not quite work out in his favour and then a clash with Sainz – in which he was not to blame – effectively ruined his race. But it’s hard to argue that he didn’t give himself the best possible chance of maximising his results from the weekend.
Fernando Alonso – 6/10
Sprint race start: 8th
Sprint race finish: 17th
Qualified: 15th (-4 places behind team mate, +0.205s)
Start: +3 places
Strategy: One-stop (H-M)
Finished: 9th (+8 places ahead of team mate)
▶ Lined up eighth on sprint grid, just beaten by team mate
▶ Finished last on road in sprint after damage suffered in first corner clash
▼ Eliminated slowest in Q2 to line up 15th for grand prix
▲ Started on hards, gaining three places at start but passed by Gasly
▶ Pitted under VSC, then restarted 11th
▲ Raced behind Ocon for several laps but passed late one to finish ninth
A rare weekend where Alonso did not seem comfortable in his car compared to his team mate – especially over one lap. His sprint race was ruined by a clash at turn one which he was one of many innocent victims of, but he had some good fortune with the Virtual Safety Car allowing him to pit and emerge ahead of his team mate. He managed to pick off Ocon to secure what was probably the best finish possible for Aston Martin this weekend, but his qualifying performances restrict his score.
Lance Stroll – 6/10
Sprint race start: 7th
Sprint race finish: 19th
Qualified: 11th (+4 places ahead of team mate, -0.205s)
Start: Held position
Strategy: Two-stop (M-H-M)
Finished: 17th (-8 places behind team mate)
▲ Out-qualified team mate in sprint qualifying on eight lap-old softs in SQ3
▶ Eliminated from sprint race in turn one collision, losing upgraded parts
▶ Just missed out on Q3 in 11th but out-qualified team mate
▶ Pitted early for hards before second stop under SC for mediums
▲ Restarted in 17th and passed three cars to finish 13th
▼ Demoted to 17th after 10s penalty for passing Albon off track
A frustrating weekend for Stroll. While he appeared to have the pace, he did not get the luck. He retired as the second victim of the turn one clash in the sprint race, then outqualified his team mate for a second time in grand prix qualifying. Pitting early for hard tyres did not work out for him at all and while he managed to make up some ground after the restart, his penalty undid all his hard work. A shame, but he probably deserved more.
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Pierre Gasly – 6/10
Sprint race start: 16th
Sprint race finish: 9th
Qualified: 12th (+1 place ahead of team mate, -0.047s)
Start: -1 place
Strategy: One-stop (M-H)
Finished: 12th (-2 places behind team mate)
▶ Failed to follow team mate through to SQ2, missing out by a tenth
▶ Rose five places thanks to turn one chaos in sprint to finish 11th but elevated to ninth
▲ Reached Q2 to qualify 12th for grand prix
▲ Passed Alonso on lap two before pitting early for hards
▶ Restarted 12th but lost a place to Hulkenberg on way to finish 12th
Alpine were in much stronger form in Miami than they had been for many of the earlier rounds of the season. Although Gasly missed out on a point like his team mate, he had been ahead of him before his early stop allowed Ocon to overcut him and was never more than five seconds behind his team mate after the restart. He should be happy with his performance across the weekend.
Esteban Ocon – 7/10
Sprint race start: 13th
Sprint race finish: 15th
Qualified: 13th (-1 place behind team mate, +0.047s)
Start: -1 place
Strategy: One-stop (M-H)
Finished: 10th (+2 places ahead of team mate)
▲ Secured passage to SQ2 on his way to 13th on sprint grid
▼ Hit with 10s penalty for sprint for driving into Leclerc in pit lane
▶ Finished 17th in sprint but promoted to 15th after penalties ahead
▲ Eliminated from Q2 in 13th but reported power unit problem during session
▶ Got ahead of team mate thanks to longer first stint then restarted in tenth
▲ Absorbed pressure from Alonso but passed on lap 48, holding onto final point in tenth
Ocon has always seemed like the most likely of the two Alpine team mates to take the team’s first points of the season and he duly delivered in Miami. He put in consistently strong performances across the three days given the pace of his car and while his strategy worked out with the VSC , he also had decent pace over the second stint. There was no shame in being passed by Alonso late on, but by then he was already secure in tenth. The only blight was a silly and avoidable penalty coming out of the garage before the sprint race.
Alexander Albon – 5/10
Sprint race start: 20th
Sprint race finish: 13th
Qualified: 14th (+3 places ahead of team mate, -0.144s)
Start: -1 place
Strategy: Two-stop (M-H-S)
Finished: 18th (+2 places ahead of team mate)
▼ Eliminated slowest in sprint qualifying after having best time deleted
▶ Started sprint from pit lane, passing Bottas to finish 15th, then promoted to 13th
▶ Reached Q2 but eliminated 14th
▶ Pitted earliest for hard tyres and then stayed out under Safety Car to restart 13th
▲ Kept cars with fresher tyres behind him for several laps
▼ Lost multiple places running wide at T11, then finished last after pitting again
Albon described his Miami weekend as “one of the most challenging races I’ve had at Williams”. Nothing seemed to go smoothly for him throughout the three days, but he still rose to the challenges for the most part. His track limit habits caught him out on Friday but he did a decent job to recover to finish 13th, while he faded later on in the race, he could blame it on having far older tyres than his rivals around him. Not a great performance, but not as bad as the results seemed either.
Logan Sargeant – 5/10
Sprint race start: 18th
Sprint race finish: 10th
Qualified: 17th (-3 places behind team mate, +0.144s)
Start: +1 place
Strategy: One-stop (M-H)
Finished: Retired (Collision – L28)
▶ Out-qualified team mate for the first time in 35 attempts in sprint qualifying
▶ Finished 13th in sprint but gained all positions avoiding turn one clash
▶ Failed to follow team mate through to Q3 but just a tenth slower
▶ Ran behind team mate until crashed out by Magnussen
At his home grand prix, Sargeant had one of his better performances of the season. He made not major errors and even managed to beat his team mate for the first time ever in sprint qualifying. He had a respectable showing in Saturday qualifying and was matching his team mate in the grand prix before being taken out by Magnussen. A weekend where he deserved a better result.
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Yuki Tsunoda – 7/10
Sprint race start: 15th
Sprint race finish: 8th
Qualified: 10th (+8 places ahead of team mate, -0.293s)
Start: +1 place
Strategy: One-stop (M-H)
Finished: 7th (+8 places ahead of team mate)
▼ Eliminated from SQ2 in 15th after having single timed lap deleted
▲ Rose several places on softs to take final sprint race point in eighth
▲ Reached Q3 to qualify tenth for grand prix
▲ Showed strong race pace before Safety Car
▲ Restarted ahead of Mercedes and kept Russell behind to claim season best seventh
Coming off the back of a rare off weekend in 2024 in China, Tsunoda’s Miami weekend started little better on Friday. However, he managed to rise up the order in the sprint race impressively, then simply out-performed his team mate in the two grand prix sessions. While Ricciardo was struggling to get by Haas and Saubers, Tsunoda was Racing wheel-to-wheel with the Mercedes on his way to his best finish of the year to date. Only his error in SQ2 prevents a higher score.
Daniel Ricciardo – 6/10
Sprint race start: 4th
Sprint race finish: 4th
Qualified: 18th (-8 places behind team mate, +0.293s)
Grid: 20th (-10 places behind team mate)
Start: Held position
Strategy: One-stop (H-M)
Finished: 15th (-8 places behind team mate)
▲ Secured top four grid position for sprint race
▲ Held off Sainz to finish fourth in sprint race
▼ Knocked out of Q1 in 18th, dropped to last on grid after China penalty
▶ Started on hards and pitted under Safety Car for mediums, restarting 15th
▼ Faded over the second half of the race to finish 16th which became 15th after penalties
One interesting dynamic of sprint rounds is how drivers can have vastly different fortunes in the sprint sessions and grand prix sessions. No one demonstrated that better in Miami than Ricciardo. He looked like a rockstar after sprint qualifying and the sprint race with a very strong showing, only for it all to fall off when it mattered most. He later suggested that his poor grand prix performance on being stuck behind rivals with too much wing level to make his way through the DRS train he was in. Fortunately for Ricciardo this was a sprint round, as based on his results in the grand prix sessions alone, this would have been another very disappointing weekend.
Valtteri Bottas – 5/10
Sprint race start: 19th
Sprint race finish: 14th
Qualified: 16th (+4 places ahead of team mate, -0.361s)
Grid: 16th (+3 places ahead of team mate)
Start: -3 places
Strategy: Two-stop (S-H-M)
Finished: 16th (-2 places behind team mate)
▼ Hit by three-place penalty for blocking Piastri in SQ1, leaving him last on sprint grid
▶ Avoided start crash in sprint to finish 16th but promoted to 14th after penalties
▶ Out-qualified team mate but eliminated from Q1 in 16th
▶ Started on softs then fell last after early stop for hards
▶ Finished 17th, three seconds behind team mate but promoted to 16th
A fairly unremarkable weekend for Bottas where he did not commit any major mistakes but also did not have many outstanding moments either. Missing out on Q2 by a slim margin was his highlight of the weekend, but by the end of the first lap he was already down in 19th place. The Safety Car likely did not help him but even if he finished behind his team mate, he at least kept pace with him over the second half of the race. Although he got a penalty for impeding in sprint qualifying, it was fair to say the blame was more on his new race engineer than Bottas himself.
Zhou Guanyu – 6/10
Sprint race start: 17th
Sprint race finish: 11th
Qualified: 20th (-4 places behind team mate, +0.361s)
Grid: 19th (-3 places behind team mate)
Start: +1 place
Strategy: One-stop (M-S)
Finished: 14th (+2 places ahead of team mate)
▶ Eliminated from SQ1 in 17th, ahead of team mate
▶ Finished 13th in sprint after lap one chaos, promoted to 11th after penalties
▼ Eliminated slowest in Q1, reprimanded for crossing pit exit line
▲ Got ahead of team mate early and ran long opening stint on mediums
▶ Gained 14th when Albon ran off track, then lost 15th to Piastri on final lap
▶ Promoted to 14th after Stroll’s penalty
Zhou had a fairly understated weekend where his performance flew under the radar, but that is perhaps unfair to him. Although Sauber do not have a car capable of fighting for a top ten in typical circumstances, Zhou managed to finish 11th in the sprint race and pick up five places in the grand prix to go a fair way to make up for his underwhelming Saturday. Fighting to keep his Sauber seat for 2024, beating Bottas over the weekend would not have hurt his chances.
Nico Hulkenberg – 7/10
Sprint race start: 10th
Sprint race finish: 7th
Qualified: 9th (+10 places ahead of team mate, -0.236s)
Start: +1 place
Strategy: Two-stop (M-H-M)
Finished: 11th (+8 places ahead of team mate)
▲ Reached SQ3 to take tenth on grid for sprint
▲ Claimed seventh in sprint despite gaining time cutting chicane
▲ Squeezed into Q3 to qualify ninth for grand prix
▲ Passed hard-shod Hamilton early before being re-passed
▶ Pitted a second time under SC to restart 16th on new mediums
▲ Passed four cars to climb to 11th where he would finish
One of the better drivers of the weekend, Hulkenberg demonstrated what it is that Audi find so appealing about him in Miami. Consistently ahead of his team mate across the weekend, Hulkenberg secured two points with seventh in the sprint race, then reached Q3 in grand prix qualifying. He showed guts fighting with Hamilton early in the grand prix but appeared to get suckered into making an ill-judged early switch to hard tyres that cost him compared to the cars ahead. However, he did pretty good work to move up the field after the Safety Car and just missed out on the points in 11, but that was still a very strong result.
Kevin Magnussen – 2/10
Sprint race start: 14th
Sprint race finish: 18th
Qualified: 19th (-10 places behind team mate, +0.236s)
Grid: 18th (-9 places behind team mate)
Start: +1 place
Strategy: Two-stop (H-M-M)
Finished: 19th (-8 places behind team mate)
▶ Failed to follow team mate through into SQ3 to line up 14th for sprint
▼ Received four penalties in sprint race to be classified last
▼ Eliminated from Q1 after complaining about traffic at hairpin on final lap
▼ Hit Sargeant at turn three in grand prix, earning ten second penalty
▼ Finished last and hit with 20s post-race penalty for Safety Car infringement
Magnussen arrived in Miami eying a chance to fight for points around one of his favourite circuits. He left after gaining five points on his superlicence and will now be staring down the barrel of a race ban over the remainder of the year. Although his sprint race penalties were down to his attempt to support his team mate, such tactics should not be rewarded. He probably deserved his penalty for hitting Sargeant in the grand prix, then had yet another penalty on top of that after driving through the pit lane under Safety Car without stopping.
Although Magnussen’s weekend was awful, it falls short of an even worse rating. His penalties were plentiful, but only one – the Sargeant incident – was particularly severe. More dangerous behaviour over the weekend or incidents of collisions with the barriers or his fellow drivers would have warranted an even lower rating.
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2024 Miami Grand Prix
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