As you may know by now, for the 2018 season I’m going to look back on the Grands Prix from a slightly different angle. I’ve said all I’m going to say about the cars and the future of F1 with my top 11 suggestions to fix the sport - so I’ll say no more and wait for the Ross Brawn revolution.

Meanwhile in my pre-season column I made my predictions as to how I reckon the intra-team qualifying rivalry is going to shape up – so now it’s time to see how those rivalries develop.

There might only be one winner of the Grand Prix but for the drivers your biggest opposition is your team-mate so there are actually ten winners and ten losers!

Sadly, the promised rain never did fall in Spain and the predictable Barcelona bore came to fruition. A completely unnecessary use of a VSC tried to mix things up a little but only ended up pushing Vettel back a place or two. But who shone the most in those all-important team battles?

MY DRIVER OF THE DAY: FERNANDO ALONSO 10/10

MCLAREN

Fernando probably deserves ten out of ten every time he drives a racing car, but he gets the nod this weekend partly because it was his home Grand Prix but also because he made possibly the only non-DRS overtake of the whole race when he went round the outside of Ocon and then he neatly jumped Leclerc when the VSC was switched off.

As for Stoffel Vandoorne it was another below par effort. 0.223secs behind in qualifying and then falling off all on his own at the first corner! He was still battling to get past Ericsson for 12th when a drive problem ended his misery.

ALONSO: 10/10

VANDOORNE: 4/10

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MERCEDES

Hamilton drove a faultless race to lead home a Mercedes 1-2 (Pic: Sutton) Hamilton drove a faultless race to lead home a Mercedes 1-2 (Pic: Sutton)

It always needs something slightly over and above the line of duty to get a ten, but it is pretty hard to fault either Mercedes driver as they cruised to a one-two finish.

Valtteri Bottas was only beaten to pole by 0.04secs but lost out to Sebastian Vettel at the first corner and was well beaten by Lewis Hamilton by the end of the race.

HAMILTON: 9/10

BOTTAS: 8/10

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RED BULL

For a short while it looked like Max Verstappen had once again thrown away the chance of a podium finish when he ran into the back of a Williams as the VSC switched back to green, but fortunately the damage to his front wing didn’t seem to slow him at all and he easily held Vettel at bay.

He only out-qualified his teammate by 0.002secs but Ricciardo had something of a lacklustre day that included a spin on cold tyres at that same re-start and he was never really in the picture.

VERSTAPPEN: 9/10

RICCIARDO: 7/10

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SAUBER

Young Charles Leclerc was possibly the only other one that could be considered for a ten as he once again punched way above his weight.

He qualified 14th, a massive 0.832secs ahead of his more experienced teammate and calmly held off Alonso until the VSC gave the veteran a chance to teach the young upstart a lesson!

Charles Leclerc drove another great race for Sauber Alfa Romeo (Pic: Sutton) Charles Leclerc drove another great race for Sauber Alfa Romeo (Pic: Sutton)

By contrast poor Marcus Ericsson must simply be wondering what has hit him - and sponsor-wise it’s pretty much his team!

LECLERC: 9/10

ERICSSON: 4/10

***

FERRARI

Ferrari had a weekend where they flattered to deceive but once again it was Vettel who led the way.

Close to the pace of the Mercedes in qualifying, with Kimi trailing by over two tenths of a second in all three sessions, but unable to mount a challenge in the race and not even making it to the podium as tyre wear issues and engine maladies blighted their progress.

But who wouldn’t love to see the Kimster bounce back with pole in Monte Carlo?

VETTEL: 8/10

RAIKKONEN: 7/10

***

HAAS

Back to being ‘best of the rest’ the Haas team should have had a nice haul of points - but then you can never trust Romain Grosjean not to shoot himself in the foot.

Kevin Magnussen out-qualified the Frenchman by nearly a fifth of a second to line up three places ahead of him in seventh, albeit nearly a second behind the Red Bulls, and then drove a solid race as Romain wreaked havoc behind him.

Grosjean’s quote after the race was that “there wasn’t much I could do once the car went”. How about not slamming your foot on the throttle and firing yourself back into the track in a blinding cloud of tyre smoke??!!

Once off track and fully sideways simply locking the brakes would have kept him out of trouble…

MAGNUSSEN: 8/10

GROSJEAN: 2/10

***

Renault

Being hampered by fuel pressure issues in qualifying and then clobbered by a crazy Frenchman meant that Nico Hulkenberg didn’t really have much to show for the weekend so can only get an average five.

Carlos Sainz certainly had the better weekend even though he ran wide at the start, taking Alonso with him and allowing Grosjean past, but had a solid run to the end making sure Fernando still finished the third best Renault!

SAINZ: 7/10

HULKENBERG: 5/10

***

Force India

Having looked to be back to their competitive best in Baku, Spain saw a major slump in Force India’s form and the two cars lined up 13th an 15th with Esteban Ocon doing the better job a chunky 0.402secs ahead of his Mexican mate.

Split apart by the rotating Grosjean, Ocon was having the better race until a pit stop nightmare and then a blown engine ruined his day while Sergio Perez was left having to work hard to get ahead of Leclerc.

OCON: 7/10

PEREZ: 6/10

***

Williams

With Robert Kubica struggling to enjoy his official return to Grand Prix action, as the wayward Williams continues to refuse to co-operate with its drivers, Lance Stroll made the best of another bad weekend by once again making a good start and then fighting all the way to the finish.

Sergey Sirotkin did have the honour of out-qualifying Lance before he was kicked behind with a gearbox penalty and then almost came to a halt in Grosjean’s fog. He struggled on to be the last finisher and must be hoping the Williams design team shuffle will perform a miracle before Monaco.

STROLL: 7/10

SIROTKIN: 5/10

***

Toro Rosso

Somehow the Toro Rosso team managed to have an even worse weekend than Williams. Brendon Hartley buried his machine backwards into the wall in FP3 and didn’t even make qualifying while the only crumb of comfort was Pierre Gasly lining up 12th just over a fifth of a second shy of making the top ten.

Unfortunately, the nice Frenchman then met the mad Frenchman and it was left to Hartley to successfully battle with Sirotkin for the hour of not being last...

This was the result of Hartley's crash in free practice before qualifying (Pic: Sutton) This was the result of Hartley's crash in free practice before qualifying (Pic: Sutton)

GASLY: 6/10

HARTLEY: 3/10

***

Final table from the Spanish Grand Prix

10/10 - Alonso

9/10 - Hamilton, Verstappen, Leclerc

8/10 - Bottas, Vettel, Magnussen

7/10 - Raikkonen, Ricciardo, Sainz, Ocon, Stroll

6/10 - Perez, Gasly

5/10 - Hulkenberg, Sirotkin

4/10 - Vandoorne, Ericsson

3/10 - Hartley

2/10 - Grosjean

Who was your pick for driver of the day? Let us know in the comments below...