ARAMCO F1 POWER RANKINGS: Who impressed our judges the most when they returned from F1 to Austin?

Max Verstappen took his first Grand Prix victory in the USA with a brilliant performance on Sunday at the Circuit of The Americas. But did he get the highest score from our Aramco F1 Power Rankings judges? Read on to find out how they did the field this week …

HOW IT WORKS

• Our six-person jury evaluates every driver after every Grand Prix and rates them according to their performance at the weekend of 10 points – which takes the machines out of the equation

• Our experts’ results are then averaged over the season to create an overall performance ranking (at the bottom of the page).

READ MORE: Ross Brawn on the title fight, Perez at the perfect time and the rise of F1 in the US

Max Verstappen had one of his strongest races of the season, taking pole position in a Mercedes stronghold, but losing to his rival Lewis Hamilton right at the start of the race. The way he regained that leadership was nothing short of clinical, a “super aggressive” strategy that allowed him to face the Austin heat with the maturity and drive that only a World Championship leader can have.

He delivered a performance that brought Honda their first US GP win since 1991, Red Bull their first US GP win since 2013 and their own first win in the States. All of this convinced our jury.

READ MORE: 6 US Grand Prix Winners and 5 Losers – Who Got the crowd in Austin?

Charles Leclerc was clear on his way to fourth, his pace putting him right at the top of the midfield – 25 seconds ahead of fifth-placed McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo – on a track where Ferrari hadn’t expected to score so high. The Monaco driver even thought he could have taken a podium on Sunday. The fact that he finished just 10 seconds behind Red Bull’s Sergio Perez only underlines his arguments.

READ MORE: Binotto Says Ferrari’s US Grand Prix appearance proved that they made a “big step forward” with the unit

Lewis Hamilton put in a strong performance but ended up close in Austin. Hamilton trumped Verstappen on Turn 1 until Red Bull opened the undercut and gave the Briton a strategic headache. He watched the pursuit admirably, pitting later as Verstappen for his final stint and ending 8.8 seconds behind the leader on fresh tires. But numerous other factors – including heat, backmarks, and the Dutchman’s late boost in speed – all contributed to robbing him of victory.

WATCH: Watch the tense final lap in full length as Hamilton pushes Verstappen all the way in Texas

This was an acid test for Red Bull’s Sergio Perez. The Mexican lost his beverage system under the blazing sun at COTA with more than 30 laps remaining. His serenity radiated when Perez made way for his team-mate Verstappen as the Dutchman ran far in Turn 1 and then secured the final podium. The kind of second driver performance that team boss Christian Horner has been looking for for a long time.

READ MORE: High stakes at high altitude – Will Mexico City be a “Red Bull track” again this year?

Daniel Ricciardo had crossed the finish line 25 seconds behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, but had a firm grip on P5, even after losing a few places on the opening tour. The Australian came back and took one place ahead of teammate Lando Norris and another ahead of Carlos Sainz – and in the end struggled again with the Spaniard with contact to maintain a solid result.

READ MORE: “A strong defense” was required, says Ricciardo after fighting Sainz at COTA

Much like the Alpines, the Aston Martins seemed a long way from home in Texas. An engine penalty brought Sebastian Vettel back to 18th place on the grid, but the German got three practical places on the first lap, stayed out of anger to drive past Williams’ George Russell and Alfa Romeo’s fast Antonio Giovinazzi – and climbed into the points on when Pierre Gasly retired and Kimi Raikkonen stalled late.

LISTEN: The F1 Nation crew at this tense tussle in Texas and what it means for the title race

When Yuki Tsunoda stormed out the gates in Bahrain, it was the kind of performance we had expected in every race. The AlphaTauri rider proved to be a stubborn obstacle for Valtteri Bottas – he certainly helped his Honda riders at Red Bull score points in the championship – managed to start his soft tires in the scorching heat and scored useful points for the team , as teammate Gasly was out of the running.

READ MORE: Tsunoda survived the early stint on soft tires and took the first points since Hungary in his “best race of the year”

Carlos Sainz was undeniably unfortunate enough not to leave the United States with more than P7. His race was affected as he had to start on soft tires and he lost in a midfield battle leading up to Turn 12.

The kicker was that Sainz, after a slow second pit stop, was fighting with Ricciardo at the very end, which resulted in him coming into contact with the McLaren and eventually losing another position to Bottas.

Lando Norris gave everything to fight his way from seventh on the grid, taking three places on the back straight with Ferrari’s Sainz and McLaren team-mate Ricciardo and avoiding a collision with Leclerc in the tight turn 12. Unfortunately for Norris, he ended up behind Sainz and Ricciardo , and was overtaken by Bottas late and finished eighth.

READ MORE: Norris explains the “scary” start in Austin as he battled the couple Ricciardo and Ferrari on Round 1

So close to scoring a point in the USA, Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi started twelfth, passed Kimi Raikkonen and drove on at a pace comparable to that of his experienced team-mate. But the Italian lost in a fight against an excited Fernando Alonso, and another world champion – Aston Martins Sebastian Vettel – overtook him in the closing stages and took the last spot on the points.

ANALYSIS: Why was Raikkonen allowed to keep the place after he went off the track for Alonso?

Miss

Three drivers with significantly different races narrowly missed our top 10: Valtteri Bottas from Mercedes; Pierre Gasly from AlphaTauri; and Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen.

Bottas’ progress was stopped by a persistent Yuki Tsunoda, but he managed the overcut and finished sixth out of ninth with a late pass to Sainz. Gasly showed solid pace from P8 and looked for points before a suspension mistake stopped him. And finally Raikkonen almost scored the last point for Alfa Romeo before falling back to 13th place due to a spin.

United States Grand Prix 2021: Raikkonen loses P10 with a big spin at COTA

The overall rating

No change at the top: Verstappen emphatically leads our power ranking ahead of Norris and Hamilton. But Leclerc has lost a place; because he was tied with Hamilton on 8 January.

Sainz, Gasly and Russell stay tied in fifth, but Ricciardo and Alpines Esteban Ocon – the French who finished the race in Austin – have swapped places.