Charles Leclerc (Retired, Lap 23): 6/10
In another terrible weekend for Ferrari (and at their home race at that - thank goodness the Tifosi weren't on hand to witness it!) Charles Leclerc fared somewhat better than his team mate but then made a bad mistake that cost the team what could have been a surprise opportunistic podium. He finished inside the top ten on Friday and always looked like the team's best bet to get a car through to the final top ten pole shoot-out in qualifying. While he at least survived the cut at the end of Q1 (unlike Sebastian Vettel), in the end he could only manage 13th on the grid. He started on softs which soon started to degrade forcing him into an early pit stop, and this proved fortuitous when a safety car ensued: when everyone else came in, Leclerc and the other early-stoppers inherited the top spots. Rapid moves on the two Alfa Romeos popped him up to fourth place and it seemed that Leclerc was all set for a surprise podium - until he pushed too hard through the Parabolica and lost the backend, sending him into the tyre wall. Such a shame, and a waste of a gold-plated opportunity,
Max Verstappen (Retired, Lap 30): 7/10
What happened to Red Bull this weekend? After a steady run of strong results this season, it seemed that their pace deserted them at Monza. Surely they didn't end up being more adversely affected by the banning of engine party modes than Mercedes? We'll have to wait until Mugello to see if this was a blip or the start of a worrying new trend, but in the meantime it left Max Verstappen unusually anonymous throughout. He was consistently fifth or sixth throughout practice and again in qualifying, but he had a slow start to the race itself and immediately dropped positions to Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris, and briefly to Lance Stroll. Thereafter he stabilised in seventh but didn't seem to be able to do anything to improve his fortunes from there. After the safety car and red flag, the team noticed worrying signs from the Honda power unit and Verstappen was forced to return to pit lane and retire on lap 30.
