Esteban Ocon (P8, 4 pts): 8/10
After a rather anonymous time in the midfield throughout practice, Esteban Ocon just came up short in qualifying where he missed the cut at the end of Q2 by a little over a tenth. He was then dismayed to be demoted three places on the grid after being deemed to have blocked George Russell during the session, leaving him starting from 14th place. He quickly made up two of those lost positions at the start, and then put in a brilliant 22-lap run on a set of mediums before switching to the hard compound for the flip-side of a one-stop strategy, one of only three drivers in the field who were able to pull that off on Sunday. His reward was a well-earned eighth place, somewhat compensating for his Renault team mate Daniel Ricciardo spinning out of the points mid-race.
Nico Hulkenberg (P7, 6 pts): 8.5/10
It was good to see Nico Hulkenberg get a second outing with Racing Point - and even better that the car actually fired up this time so that he was able to take part in the race! The German driver had already been looking strong in practice, but there were audible gasps when he managed to pip Max Verstappen to third place on the grid in qualifying itself. Inevitably he lost out to the Dutch driver at the start of the race but he was still looking pretty tidy in fourth place. Switching to the hard compound tyres proved less successful and vibrations meant that he was subsequently forced onto a three-stop strategy late in the day that dropped him behind his team mate Lance Stroll for the final eight laps of the race. Nonetheless, seventh place is a very strong result for someone who was at home twiddling his thumbs just 10 days ago.
