Daniel Ricciardo (P4, Fastest lap, 13 pts): 9.5/10
When Daniel Ricciardo was listed as second fastest at the end of Friday practice, there were a few people on pit lane with whiplash from doing double takes at the timesheets. Finally it seemed that Renault were showing the sort of pace and performance that we always knew must be there deep down. But was it a fluke or would it carry over to the rest of the weekend? As it turned out, Ricciardo was indeed able to deliver and he came within a whisker of denying Max Verstappen third place in qualifying. The pair then had a fierce battle for position at the start of Sunday's race but Ricciardo had to accept the inevitable and settle for fourth place, where he spent the remainder of a relatively lonely afternoon - safe enough not to be under threat from those behind, but lacking the raw speed to allow him to keep pace with the Red Bull. Toward the end that gap closed up and he was just three seconds behind Verstappen at the line, thanks in part to earning the bonus point for fastest lap of the race. If the race had been a few laps longer then he might have had a real chance to pounce. As it is, fourth place (and fifth for Esteban Ocon) was a tremendous result for the team, their best of the season by far.
Max Verstappen (P3, 15 pts): 8.5/10
Only a racing driver could spend almost two hours racing through the beautiful Ardennes forest at speeds of nearly 200mph and then declare that it had been 'boring'. But actually from Max Verstappen's point of view, it really was a case of 'nothing to see here, move along please'. The whole weekend went pretty much according to plan, with a nice bonus of being quickest of anyone at the end of Friday's practice session. The fact that Daniel Ricciardo was next on the timing screen gave him advance warning that the Aussie would be a handful in qualifying and at the start of the race itself, and so it proved to be. But once Verstappen had dealt with that threat, and come to the conclusion that there was no chance of the Red Bull keeping up with the Mercedes cars at Spa, there was nothing else for him to to do except look after his tyres, admire the scenery and get the car to the finish line - which he did without making a fuss. He's had better days, but Verstappen certainly delivered everything that he had been asked to do by the team.
