Pierre Gasly (P8, 4 pts): 9/10
Pierre Gasly was knocking on the door of the top ten throughout practice, but when it came to qualifying neither he nor his AlphaTauri team mate Daniil Kvyat were able to get through to the final round of qualifying. That turned out to be a good thing for Gasly at least, who started from 12th with a free choice of tyres. He went for the hard compound, the only man on the grid to do so, and it meant he was able to stay out longer than anyone else. By then he'd climbed up to fourth place, although he lost two places to Daniel Ricciardo and Alex Albon before finally stopping on lap 26 which put him right at the back. The fresh set of mediums allowed him to make progress in the latter half of the race, gaining a position every couple of laps on average to cross the line in eighth place, and providing much of the on-track entertainment in an otherwise so-so race.
Lando Norris (P7, 6 pts): 7.5/10
Coming into the weekend professing his love for the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, Lando Norris had a decent time in practice on Friday. He perked up on Saturday when he was third fastest in final practice, but struggled in qualifying and only just scraped through to the final round where he consolidated tenth place on the grid, three places behind his team mate. Except when it came to the start of the race, Carlos Sainz was no where to be seen on the grid and it was down to Norris to fly the McLaren colours for the rest of the afternoon. As has been so often the case, Norris lost a spot at the start but after that got his head down and had a decent afternoon, pitting under the safety car for a set of hard tyres that saw him through to the finish without any dramas, by which time he had picked up four places putting the team ahead of both of the cars of its main constructors championship rivals. It might not have been flashy, but it was a solid day at the office for Norris that delivered just what McLaren needed in Sainz' absence.
