RacingNews365's F1 Canadian Grand Prix driver ratings

Round nine of the 2024 Formula 1 world championship took place with the Canadian Grand Prix as Max Verstappen won a thriller in the changeable Montreal conditions.

He beat home Lando Norris and George Russell on a miserable day for Ferrari as it recorded a double DNF for its first non-points result since Australia 2023. 

It was a challenging weekend for the field overall with gloomy and wet conditions only making away in the final stint of the race for blue sky and a bit of temperature. 

But how did all of the drivers fare across the weekend? RacingNews365 has weighed in with our driver ratings.

The top five

Max Verstappen - 9

Given the ERS problem that struck on Friday practice, the fact the car is not good over kerbs and the comparative lack of pace shown, to stick the RB20 second on the grid with a time fast enough for pole position thanks to the Russell dead heat, Verstappen was on course for a 10.

However, his minor slip at Turn 2 costs him a perfect result but once he got into the lead at both safety car stops, there was no doubt as to who would win. A commanding performance in difficult conditions. 

George Russell - 8.5

You start on pole position, you should be converting that into a win, or at the very least a close second.

That failure drops Russell to a mark of 8, but he did well in the early stages to defend from Verstappen and wisely did not attempt to hold the flying Norris up when he first attacked the Mercedes. The off at Turn 8 was clumsy and arguably cost him second, but the Lap 68 move, scything up the inside of Hamilton at final chicane was expertly managed and earns him half a mark back.

Lando Norris - 8.5

Norris could have won had it not been for the untimely deployment of the first safety car, missing the pit-window by about 1.5s.

But he drove a fantastic race and when he was leading, it appeared only the safety car would beat him - which it did. It is now four podiums from the last five races.

Fernando Alonso - 8

Aston Martin has struggled of late with the AMR24, but Alonso turned it around for sixth and his best result since Japan. Perhaps he could have been ahead of Daniel Ricciardo on the grid, but this was a typically gutsy drive, and Hamilton could only pass him through a slow Aston Martin pit-stop. Maximum result possible.

Daniel Ricciardo - 8

After Jacques Villeneuve took a cleaver to his career earlier in the weekend, Ricciardo responded well on-track, taking fifth on the grid. 

Expected faster cars of Hamilton, Alonso and Lance Stroll passed him, with eighth the best realistic result, which he delivered. Seventh could have been on the cards if it were not for a harsh-looking five-second time penalty for a false start, with movement minimal.

The bottom five

Yuki Tsunoda - 6 

Tsunoda actually had a good weekend, banking a new contract and running well inside the points in the closing stages. But he then threw that away by getting too brave on the brakes at Turn 8 on Lap 66 and cost himself a chance at adding to his tally. A clumsy mistake.

Charles Leclerc - 5

It was just an off-weekend for Ferrari, with Leclerc only being rated higher of the two Scuderia drivers simply because his retirement was not his fault, and the fact that he out-qualified Carlos Sainz.

Engine troubles put pay to his race after Ferrari sent him out on dry tyres despite the rain arriving during the first round of pit-stops. 

Carlos Sainz - 5 

Being out-qualified by Leclerc was a bad start, but at least he was making progress forward before binning it at Turn 6/7, and collecting the innocent Alex Albon. One to forget all in all.

Zhou Guanyu - 3 

A wasted weekend where Zhou crashed twice in practice, and put himself at a major disadvantage in qualifying and the race, with almost no dry running. In the end, he was the only driver one lap down. 

Sergio Perez - 2

Simply terrible from a driver who should be doing better, no matter what the conditions or if Montreal is not one of his stronger circuits. 

Being eliminated in Q1 was bad enough, the contact with Gasly at Turn 2 at the start was understandable in the conditions, but not making progress through the field capped it off.

Being handed a three-place grid drop for Spain for crashing at Turn 6 and not stopping to try and prevent a safety car that could halt Verstappen just about summed it up.