Nicholas Latifi (P16): 7/10
It turned out to be a rather decent weekend for Nicholas Latifi, at least in the important matter of the local battle with his Williams team mate. After starting the weekend slowest with a spin in FP1, he was actually quicker than George Russell on Friday afternoon and was 15th again in final practice. Russell stole the limelight again in qualifying, but Latifi was able to take some pride in out-qualifying Kimi Raikkonen, although a gearbox penalty meant he still started from last place. When it came to the race, starting from the back meant he was able to stay out of trouble and pick up six places in the confusion of the opening lap, and it wasn't until lap 8 until Raikkonen was able to find a way past. The early round of pit stops saw him fall back to 17th and that's where he stayed for the rest of the afternoon, eventually going a lap down on lap 38. He picked up an extra place when Romain Grosjean made a late second pit stop, and finished almost half a minute ahead of Russell at the line showing that he'd done well to get as much out of the FW43 as he did.
Lando Norris (P15): 6/10
Formula 1's most ebullient driver (well, possibly a tie with Daniel Ricciardo), Lando Norris won't be happy with this one. After a slow start on Friday morning, Norris and his team mate were looking in decent form in FP2 where both men featured in the top five on the timesheets. Try as he might, Norris couldn't get the upper hand on Carlos Sainz at any point and although he was able to get through to the final round of qualifying he still ended up lining up two places behind the Spaniard on the grid on Sunday. Unfortunately that meant he got caught up in Sainz' opening lap accident at turn 2 and he was obliged to make a safety stop and take on a new set of tyres which inevitably put him right at the back of the field. At the restart he had some fun duelling with his friends Alex Albon and George Russell, and gradually made up positions as the cars ahead made their own scheduled pit stops. He peaked in ninth place but by this time his tyres were in poor shape after 45 laps of Sochi Autodrom, and a second service dropped him out of the points and left him 15th at the line, the worst finish of his F1 career to date.
