Turkish Grand Prix 2021: Driver Ratings

McLaren: Lando Norris - 8/10

The Turkish Grand Prix was slightly unfamiliar territory for Lando Norris. For a change, he found himself in a car that was not as competitive as the McLaren has usually been this season. Norris, though, didn't let his head down, and extracted as much as he could from the McLaren.

The qualifying and race results from the Turkish Grand Prix do not look great as compared to the lofty standards McLaren has achieved recently. But Norris yet again proved his worth to the team by finishing seventh.

McLaren: Daniel Ricciardo - 4/10

It looked like back to square one for Daniel Ricciardo at the Turkish Grand Prix. The affable Australian was eliminated in Q1 on Saturday. Sunday was not much different for the Australia,n as he lacked speed, and more importantly, confidence to make any sort of meaningful overtakes in his McLaren.

In the end, finishing 13th in a McLaren made it a weekend to forget for Ricciardo, who would have thought that the tide would change after his Monza win.

Ferrari: Charles Leclerc - 8/10

Charles Leclerc was the star of qualifying at the Turkish Grand Prix. The lap that he pulled out during the later stages of the session was nothing short of impressive, as his car never looked as competitive during the session.

The race was slightly underwhelming for the French driver. He kept pace with the cars in front, gambled on not pitting for new intermediates, and pitted later in the race to finish P4. Overall, it was a good weekend for the young Ferrari driver.

Ferrari: Carlos Sainz Jr. - 8/10

If it was not for Carlos Sainz, there wasn't much action to watch during the Turkish Grand Prix. The Spaniard was one of the few cars that was able to consistently pull out great overtakes and progress through the field. After taking a penalty for a power unit change, this was a decent result for him.

Alpine: Fernando Alonso - 3/10

Alonso was amazing during qualifying at the Turkish Grand Prix. However, his first-lap entanglement with Piere Gasly was not ideal, and then his subsequent crash with Mick Schumacher was rather clumsy.

After falling down the order and picking up a five-second time penalty, Alonso was more or less stuck in traffic, and could not make much progress. It was a rare off-weekend for the Spanish legend.

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Alpine: Esteban Ocon - 6/10

Behind the euphoria of finishing the race without pitting for tires is a reality Esteban Ocon would be more than aware of. The reality is the fact that he is slowly falling behind Alonso.

That was on evidence at the Turkish Grand Prix where Alonso was able to qualify inside the top ten, while Ocon was eliminated in Q2. There have been too many promising young drivers that have been chewed up and spat out as Alonso's teammates.

So the French driver would need to pull up his socks if he doesn't want to suffer the same fate.

Alpha Tauri: Pierre Gasly - 8/10

During the Turkish Grand Prix, Pierre Gasly did what he usually does. He qualified the Alpha Tauri in a respectable position on Saturday, and then finished as high as possible with the car at his disposal.

Was there something he could have done better? Maybe his defence against Lewis was not as robust as it could have been.

Alpha Tauri: Yuki Tsunoda - 6/10

Yuki Tsunoda is slowly starting to get the hang of things in Formula 1. The problem? His learning has arguably been too slow. The high of finally making it to Q3 was quickly replaced by the low of yet again making an unforced error and tumbling down the order at the Turkish Grand Prix.

Yuki Tsunoda said he was surprised when he learnt that Alpha Tauri had extended his contract for another year. The sad thing is, he's right, and he needs to get better quickly after his performances at the Turkish Grand Prix.