Carlos Sainz (P6, 8 pts): 8.5/10
It was an up and down weekend for Carlos, but fortunately the race itself definitely counted among the ups. Before then the Spaniard had been solidly inside the top ten in Friday's practice sessions, but Saturday didn't go so well and he admitted that he had got slower and slower during qualifying. Disappointed to miss out on Q3, he headed into the race needing some good fortune to overcome his lowly 13th starting position. And that's exactly what he got, in a position to take advantage of an early safety car to dive into pit lane which cemented him in seventh place. He picked up an additional place later in the race when Sebastian Vettel plummeted to the back of the field after his contretemps with Max Verstappen, and confidently held on to it to the finish despite coming under heavy pressure from Daniel Ricciardo in the closing laps.
