Alexander Albon (P6, 8 pts): 7/10
Alexander Albon's biggest problem is the continual comparisons made between himself and his Red Bull team mate Max Verstappen. Even Lewis Hamilton was making comments about it at Spa, suggesting that the reason Red Bull aren't able to keep up with Mercedes is because Verstappen doesn't have a decent collaborator, leaving the squad as a de facto one-man operation. Certainly on Friday Albon was four or five tenths off Verstappen in practice which is admittedly a big gap in the same hardware, but he was fourth fastest and ahead of the Dutchman on Saturday morning. Fifth fastest was a good showing in qualifying although the team would doubtless have preferred him to be on the second row alongside Verstappen. It would also have been better if he had been able to use the medium tyres to get through Q2, but even so it was still a pretty successful outcome. Having lost a spot at the start, Albon was back up to fifth again midway through the race, only to be distinctly irked when he was passed by Renault's Esteban Ocon on the final lap.
Esteban Ocon (P5, 10 pts): 8.5/10
This weekend Esteban Ocon achieved his best result yet since his move to Renault, and he did it in a style that won him a lot of attention in the paddock. A tenth faster than his team mate Daniel Ricciardo on Friday morning, he was somewhat eclipsed by the Aussie going second quickest of anyone in the afternoon. Ocon then had his own moment in the sun by finishing final practice as second fastest, and both drivers comfortably made it through to the last round of qualifying with Ocon starting Sunday's race line astern on the grid behind Ricciardo. He got the jump on Alex Albon at the start and proceeded to run in fifth place behind his team mate until the safety car triggered an early round of pit stops. The team had to stack their drivers on pit lane and it was Ocon who lost out, the delay costing him three positions that he spent the rest of the afternoon trying to win back. He finally managed it on the final lap with a particularly satisfying second pass on Albon to close out the day.
