Charles Leclerc (P2, 18 pts): 8.5/10
Heading into the weekend it looked like being a rather bleak time for Ferrari, with rumours of internal team rifts in the wake of the decision to dump Sebastian Vettel and concerns about whether the SF1000's design was fatally flawed. The Friday practice sessions didn't offer much solace on the latter front, with Leclerc barely fast enough to break into the top ten. Anyone thinking that this might just be another case of the Scuderia sandbagging their true performance quickly sobered up when Leclerc only just made it into the final round of qualifying, and Vettel missed out altogether. Nor did the race itself look to be going any better for the Monegasque, who found himself stalled in seventh place (sixth after Max Verstappen's retirement) trailing Sergio Perez for the first 32 laps. After that he was then stuck behind Lando Norris until lap 64, hardly a great advertisement for the Ferrari's 2020 power and straight line speed. He was now back where he'd started behind Perez, but this time Leclerc had the advantage of fresh tyres and was able to make short work of the Racing Point. Together with Alexander Albon's retirement and Lewis Hamilton's penalty for causing the collision in the first place, it cleared the way for Leclerc to finish in a frankly somewhat fortunate runner-up position. But that's what great drivers and prospective champions do: they take a situation full of bitter lemons and somehow find a way to produce points-rich lemonade.
Valtteri Bottas (P1, 25 pts): 9.5/10
There's almost an eerie calmness and preternatural confidence emanating from Valtteri Bottas this year. Although he was on average a couple of tenths slower than his team mate in all three practices, he was always there in second place ready to pounce the minute that it mattered. And that moment came in qualifying when he stayed tantalisingly just out of reach of the best that Lewis Hamilton could throw at him. Hamilton's grid penalty left Bottas vying with Max verstappen at the start but this troubled him not one bit and he sailed off into the distance with almost disdainful lack of concern. The only problems he now faced were multiple safety car restarts - always an anxious moment for any race leader - and a growing concern from the Mercedes pit wall about technical issues on the W11 due to its bruising hits on the rough kerbs at the Red Bull Ring. Bottas weathered all these, as well as a comeback campaign from Hamilton, to cross the finish line looking like he hadn't a care in the world. If not for Lando Norris' scene stealing antics on the final laps of the race, Bottas would have been the driver of the day: that he's not is no disrespect to a mighty performance from the formidable Finn, who really might be in with a genuine chance of finally besting Hamilton for the title in this most unusual of seasons.
