Daniel Ricciardo (P6, 8 pts): 8.5/10
We're still struggling to work out exactly how Daniel Ricciardo pulled this one off. (We're not going to stray into discussion of the ongoing investigation into the Renault ECU and steering wheels, however, just in case you're wondering.) Things had been looking pretty bleak for Renault on Friday, with Ricciardo down in 17th in FP2 and both he and his team mate mystified by their lack of pace. When it came to qualifying on Sunday, Ricciardo failed to make it out of the first round and started the race from 16th place on the grid. He wasn't even one of those drivers to make up a bunch of positions at the start thanks to the Verstappen/Leclerc contretemps, and it wasn't until lap four that he finally started to make some forward progress. But after that it seemed there was no stopping him, rising to fifth place by the time he pitted after 29 laps on the medium compound on the opposite strategy to his team mate. New soft tyres didn't quite deliver the same sort of performance, but he picked off Perez, Hulkenberg, Stroll and Gasly in the closing laps to cross the line in seventh - which was boosted to sixth after Leclerc's double penalty was applied. Given how the weekend had started, that's quite some performance from the Aussie. Let's hope the current stewards investigation doesn't end up undoing all that hard work.
