Romain Grosjean (P16): 6/10
There was a glimmer of light for Romain Grosjean on Friday when he was 13th on the timesheets following first practice, and he was feeling very happy with how his car was handling. Sure enough, he was able to wrangle this improvement into his best starting position since the 2019 Brazil GP after surviving the cut at the end of Q1. Unfortunately the start to the race itself proved something of a disaster and he dropped multiple positions, and while he made some forward progress over the opening laps the first round of pit stops dumped him right at the back. Even though he felt he was faster than those ahead of him on the track, the Haas simply didn't have the pace to actually do anything about the midfield congestion and he made only modest gains during the afternoon on his way to an underwhelming 16th.
Kimi Raikkonen (P15): 6/10
The sight of a former world champion lining up on the grid in last place - not through some incident or penalty, but an accurate reflection of their performance on the day - is a painful one indeed. Kimi Raikkonen had been in the bottom four throughout practice, and trailed his team mate in both Saturday sessions. But the Iceman always saves his best for race day, and here at least he made up some ground to finish in 15th place - his best showing of the entire weekend, thanks in part to pulling off a one-stop strategy. He felt that the car was capable of better but that he'd been forced to slow down in the closing laps because of excessive vibration, but really it's hard to see how he could have finished any higher in a race almost completely devoid of retirements.
