Max Verstappen (P2, 18 pts): 8.5/10
Although he was third fastest in opening practice, Red Bull initially looked a little off the pace in Sochi, and even appeared under pressure to make the top ten in qualifying. In fact that proved to be no problem at all for Max Verstappen, who pulled out something really special in Q3 to kick Valtteri Bottas off the front row of the grid - team boss Christian Horner hailed it "a phenomenal result with arguably one of the best laps he's driven this season." Unfortunately Verstappen paid for it on Sunday when he started from the dirty side of the grid and lost out to Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo in the run down to the opening two corners: Verstappen outbraked himself and ran wide but avoided the thumping fate that befell Carlos Sainz in the run-off area, and he was back ahead of Ricciardo by the time the safety car came out. After that it was relatively plain sailing for Verstappen, who moved up to second when Lewis Hamilton served his double penalties. He was only 8s off the lead by the chequered flag, and still 15s ahead of Hamilton's best recovery effort, making this a very impressive outing for both Verstappen and Red Bull as a whole.
Valtteri Bottas (P1, Fastest Lap, 26 pts): 8.5/10
After topping the timesheets in both of Friday's practice sessions, Valtteri Bottas must have thought it was deja vu all over again when Lewis Hamilton crept ahead of him on Saturday and went on to secure pole position despite a fraught time for the Briton in qualifying. Even though he'd even been pipped for second by Max Verstappen, Bottas insisted that third on the grid was exactly where he wanted to be and that it meant he had the upper hand going into the race. Having taken his maiden win here in 2017, it turned out that Bottas really did know what he was talking about. He had the best launch of anyone, only missing out on slipstreaming into the lead when an insect bizarrely committed a kamikaze strike on his helmet as he timed his braking into turn 2. Unable to attack Hamilton at the restart following the safety car for Carlos Sainz and Lance Stroll, Bottas had the lead handed to him when Hamilton was handed a time penalty for a pre-race infraction. Fortunate, yes: but it's about time the Finn had some luck come his way.
