Charles Leclerc (Pole, P3, 15 pts): 9/10
After his practice back-and-forth with Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc made a quantum leap when it came to his qualifying pace and ended up a whopping four tenths faster than the rest of the field at the end of Q3. However he seemed to have some premonition that this success might come back to bite him on Sunday, as he mused whether pole in Sochi was the best place to be given that long starting straight which gave his rivals a chance to jump into the slipstream and out-drag him into turn 1. And sure enough, that was seemingly what happened at the start of the race when Sebastian Vettel got the tow and swept into the lead. It later emerged that this had been Ferrari's plan all along, but Leclerc was unhappy when his team mate then seemed not to live up to his end of the deal. Vettel's eventual retirement didn't help Leclerc either as the timing of the virtual safety car handed the lead to Lewis Hamilton. In the closing laps, Leclerc tried everything he could to pass Valtteri Bottas for second but was thwarted every time, making it a frustrating end to a weekend that had looked like being Leclerc's chance to wash away the sour taste of Singapore but which only served up a second helping of team order controversy instead.
