Max Verstappen (P2, 18 pts): 9.5/10
It was another impressive outing for Max Verstappen, although this time the tyre degradation issues that handed him an unexpected victory over Mercedes at Silverstone failed to materialise and he had to settle instead for splitting Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas on the podium. Even so, that was an impressive achievement in the circumstances and the Dutchman has been duly rewarded by taking second place in the drivers standings from Bottas. It's difficult to know what more he could possibly have done this weekend: he was permanently third fastest behind the Mercedes pair throughout practice and qualifying and then got the jump on Bottas to take second into the first corner of the race. Initially it looked like he was hanging on to Hamilton, but then the race leader shifted to hyperdrive and there was nothing that anyone could do about that. Despite fretting about his tyres ("Get your head down Max please," admonished his race engineer) Verstappen held up his end and ultimately delivered in style.
Lewis Hamilton (Pole, P1, 25 pts): 10/10
Normally after he romps to an emphatic victory, Lewis Hamilton takes great pains to insist that it hadn't been as easy as it might have been to those watching from outside the cockpit. Not so this time: even he couldn't hide his delight at how perfectly the race had gone. "I felt like I was in such a different headspace in the car. It was awesome. It was one of the best feelings that I've had in a long, long time," he said, adding: "I was just in a daze out there." It had been so good that he didn't even realise the race was over until he was told by the Mercedes pit wall. He might have been pipped to the top spot in Friday morning practice and lost out on the bonus point for fastest lap of the race to team mate Valtteri Bottas, but in pretty much every other respect there was simply nothing to fault in Hamilton's performance this week, which sees him set a new all-time record for F1 podium appearances. Given that it comes just seven days after a troubled outing for Hamilton and Mercedes in the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix, such a comprehensive rebound is why we've finally had to buckle and give the reigning world champion a perfect ten.
