Alexander Albon (P4, 12 pts): 8/10
After last week's heartbreaking finish to the Austrian GP, Alexander Albon will be pleased to have lasted the distance and finish the race in a strong points-paying position. Sixth place on the grid was a fair reflection of Albon's practice pace, and a definite achievement for Albon who is still new to racing F1 cars in anything like such dreadful conditions. If his race lacked any fireworks, it's also hard to find much to fault: he immediately got the better of Esteban Ocon at the start, gained a further place by passing Carlos Sainz on lap 8, and then in the later half of the race did well to repel Sergio Perez advances. The only downside was just how far off his team mate's pace he was throughout the weekend, by over six tenths of a second in practice and qualifying; and 40s behind Verstappen at one point in the race, before closing up again when the leaders eased off during the final laps. Still, it's doubtful that even Dr Marko has much to complain about Albon's performance this weekend.
Max Verstappen (P3, 15 pts): 9/10
Max Verstappen did everything possible to win this weekend, but the Red Bull simply wasn't good enough to allow him to compete on a fair footing with the two Mercedes drivers. It had looked promising on Friday when he was faster than both Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton in both sessions, but Hamilton was in peerless form in Saturday's atrocious wet conditions and Verstappen did well to finish second in all three rounds. Still, that final 1.2s deficit from Hamilton's pole position would have been a shock and disappointment to all at Red Bull. Even in Sunday's very different conditions, Verstappen never really looked like being able to keep up with the race leader. He was in with a chance of holding on to second, but the team's decision to make an early pit stop left him on ageing tyres and ultimately easy prey for Bottas in the final four laps. It's still a podium, but also confirmation of how much of an advantage Mercedes has.
