Daniel Ricciardo (P6, 8 pts): 8/10
A solid showing on Friday (seventh in both sessions) suggested that Daniel Ricciardo was looking good this weekend, but he dropped to 15th in final practice and the Renault was eliminated at the end of the second round of qualifying which rather took the wind out of his sails. The start of the race also didn't go according to plan and he was quickly passed by Antonio Giovinazzi, Charles Leclerc and Lance Stroll. Just when it appeared that he had levelled out in 14th place, his rash attempt to pass Kevin Magnussen ended up in a damaged front wing and a five-second penalty for causing a collision, and that could pretty much have been the end of his campaign. But Ricciardo has the talent and experience to know it's never over until it's over, and he set about making sweet lemonade from bitter lemons. He clawed his way back to 11th place by the midway point and a second pit stop to take on a new set of soft tyres that would see him to the finish. He needed the first safety car of the day to unlap himself, and he also managed to pull off effective moves on Romain Grosjean and Sergio Perez at the restart. Gifted two more spots with the retirements of the two ill-fated Ferraris, he was then promoted to seventh at the line by Alex Albon's spin, and then to sixth after the race when Lewis Hamilton was handed a five-second penalty. Suddenly all that earlier bad luck seemed a very distant memory indeed for a beaming Ricciardo.
