Valtteri Bottas (P3, 15 pts): 8.5/10
Valtteri Bottas is without question a driver transformed in 2019, able to go toe-to-toe with his Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton week after week. The Finn was only 0.072s off Hamilton in FP1 and a mere 0.081s slower in FP2 before going even quicker than the Briton in final practice. It looked like his brilliant Q3 lap of 1:10.252s would be easily enough to secure him pole in Monaco, but then Hamilton managed to pull off one of his last gasp banzai efforts to take the spot. That gave him the upper hand in the race, and the disappointment seemed to somewhat take the air out of Bottas. Unable to challenge Hamilton into Sainte-Devote, he battled with Max Verstappen instead and the two ended up clashing in pit lane a few laps later. The Mercedes sustained a suspected puncture that forced Bottas to pit a second time, costing him two positions. At least it meant that he was able to make a rapid switch from mediums to the hard compound, meaning he escaped the tyre degradation torture that Hamilton went on to endure. A penalty for Verstappen meant that Bottas regained one of the lost spots at the end of the race, but finishing behind Vettel meant a stop to the recent run of Mercedes one-two domination.
