Carlos Sainz (P6, 8 pts): 8/10
It seemed to take Carlos Sainz some time to find his feet in Sochi this weekend. After a solid if unspectacular start on Friday morning, he struggled in the remaining practice sessions and looked unlikely to do well in qualifying. Instead he surprised us all and successfully swept into Q3 where he picked up what became fifth place on the grid after Max Verstappen's engine penalty was applied. At the start he got the jump on Valtteri Bottas and even came within a whisker of out-dragging Lewis Hamilton in the long run down to turn 1, which had the potential to change the entire outcome of the race had it come off. After that the rest of Sainz' race was rather more back down to earth, surrendering fourth back to Bottas on lap 7 and then succumbing to Verstappen on lap 17. After his pit stop he was able to get the better of Pierre Gasly before the virtual safety car shuffled the pack and left him in running in fifth place. Unfortunately he wasn't able to hold out against the superior pace of Alexander Albon in the closing laps and he had to settle for sixth at the line, but it was still a good day's work and and important one in terms of McLaren's campaign to hold on to fourth in the constructors standings over their Renault rivals.
