Lando Norris (P8, 4 pts): 7.5/10
It was an up and down weekend for both McLaren drivers that made it oddly difficult to get an accurate read on their form. Lando Norris was only 16th fastest in FP1 but in subsequent sessions he was up to 11th and quite a bit faster than his team mate. Although he was comfortably through to the final round of qualifying on Saturday afternoon, he was a couple of places lower on the grid than Carlos Sainz for the race. Both McLarens had good starts: while Sainz edged ahead of Valtteri Bottas and only narrowly missed out on jumping Lewis Hamilton, Norris did manage to pick up a place off the line after Nico Hulkenberg struggled with wheel spin. Unfortunately the MCL34 didn't have the sort of speed required to hold off Max Verstappen as the Red Bull recovered from a compromised grid spot, and Norris' pit stop on lap 20 inevitably dropped him down the order. Cars pitting later under the virtual safety car clogged up the road ahead of him, and he lost to places to Alexander Albon and Sergio Perez shortly after the midrace safety car restart. Unable to make any further progress in the final 20 laps, he was still kept on his toes fighting hard to keep Hulkenberg and Stroll from ambushing him before the chequered flag.
