F1i's Driver Ratings for the 2023 Canadian GP

Max Verstappen (NLD) Red Bull Racing RB19 leads at the start of the race. 18.06.2023. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 9, Canadian Grand Prix, Montreal, Canada, Race Day. - www.xpbimages.com, EMail: requests@xpbimages.com © Copyright: Price / XPB Images'
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The drivers had a few curveballs served up this weekend in Canada, with everything from CCTV glitches to inclement weather and the local wildlife causing headaches. It didn't interrupt Max Verstappen's sublime run of victories, or delay Red Bull's landmark 100th GP win. Alex Albon shone, Lando Norris fumed for being called 'unsportsmanlike', and George Russell threw away a pile of points: what does it all mean in terms of F1i's ratings?

Logan Sargeant (Oil leak, Lap 7): 5.5/10
Poor Logan Sargeant got the raw end of the deal this weekend. All of Williams brand new upgrades were fitted to Alex Albon's car, leaving Sargeant effectively acting as the benchmark against which the team could compare and contrast whether the new parts were doing what they had been hoping for. The good news is that they did, and Sargeant will get his turn to play with the new toys in due course, which is something for the American rookie to look forward to. But for now he looked like he was driving the family saloon hand-me-down, an image only reinforced when it sprang an oil leak just eight laps into the race. It forced him to park by the side of the road while Albon sailed on to conspicuous points success. It means that Sargeant remains one of only two drivers (along with AlphaTauri rookie Nyck de Vries) yet to score any points this season. That will need to change, if the new upgrade package is everything everyone says it is.

George Russell (Brake issue, lap 54): 7.5/10
George Russell gets a huge ratings demerit for crashing on lap 12, just when it looked as though he was on course for some big points in Canada. The fact that he still gets a relatively high score is testament to how strong the rest of his weekend was: finishing Friday practice second quickest behind his Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton might have been down to lucky timing with the conditions, but nor was it a fluke as the pair lining up on the second row of the grid for Sunday's race demonstrated. Even after his accident, Russell somehow managed to get the wounded W14 back to pit lane, where - and we still can't quite believe this - it was deemed able to rejoin the race, albeit at the back of a long DRS train of slower cars. That he managed to work his way back up from there all the way to eighth place is simply astounding. He eventually retired with a brake issue that the team insisted wasn't directly related to damage from the original accident, but it had been a rather brilliant drive. Except for that one second moment of recklessness at turn 9, of course.