Spanish GP Driver Ratings

Key takeaways

• Colapinto delivered the standout drive, finishing P7 and beating Piastri after starting P9, with both hosts giving him a 10/10 and calling it the best midfield performance of the season—especially notable since Alpine wasn't clearly the strongest midfield car this weekend, unlike Monza.
• Lando Norris gets a rare unanimous 10/10 despite finishing third, after a VSC triggered while he was the only car not yet pitted cost him a near-certain win; Mercedes engineer Bono is credited with reading the VSC risk correctly and holding Antonelli back to protect the win.
• Carlos Sainz has a disastrous weekend (1/10 and 2/10), triggering the Turn 1 collision with Tsunoda and later squeezing Alonso into the wall, but the hosts push back on broader "Sainz is washed" narratives, calling it recency bias given his head-to-head record against Albon.
• Lewis Hamilton is marked Not Applicable rather than graded after a brake issue ended his race by lap two, with the hosts arguing a numerical grade would unfairly skew his season average for a race he barely participated in.
• The Liam Lawson grade becomes the episode's biggest flashpoint: Matt gives a blunt 6/10 and Tommy a "generous" 7/10 for finishing over a minute behind teammate Verstappen, while the fan vote comes in at 8/10; prompting Matt to call it flat-out "insane" given the size of the gap.
• Kimi Antonelli wins from an inherited lead but still earns 9/10 from both hosts, who use the result to push back on "lucky championship" criticism, pointing to his run of DNFs and bad breaks at Silverstone, Barcelona, and Austria as evidence the luck has roughly balanced out over the season.

Notable moments

• "I can't wait to get roasted for something I didn't vote for"; a listener comment on the value of actually voting before complaining.
• Perez gets 6-7/10 for finishing ahead of Bottas in the Cadillac before retiring with a water leak, with Tommy noting "if he finished the race... I'm sure he would get a very tasty grade."
• Sainz denies designing the Madrid circuit after Nico Rosberg's comments, prompting Matt's dry response: "Which was expected... there's no way he's drawn this and gone, guys, this is the one."
• The hosts review reverse-angle footage of the Verstappen–Hamilton Turn 1 clash and soften their stance slightly, conceding it's "less slam dunk" than the original TV angle suggested.
• Fans hand Lance Stroll a zero despite the hosts agreeing his race was wrecked by a brake problem outside his control; Tommy suspects voters saw the name and assumed blame.
• Verstappen earns a 9/10 for finishing a minute and 22 seconds ahead of teammate Lawson, which Matt dubs "Tax Verstappen"; a phrase he immediately vows to reuse in every future episode.
• Piastri is docked slightly for compounding early contact with Russell by driving into his rear wheel a second time, even though the initial squeeze wasn't Piastri's fault.
• Alonso jokes that his press officer could take "Le Monumental" flat out "because there's no battery," getting one of the episode's biggest laughs.

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