Kevin Magnussen (P12): 6.5/10
Credit where it's due, Kevin Magnussen had a solid weekend in Sochi and probably achieved as much as was possible given the current state of the Haas VF-20. The speed really isn't there, and Magnussen never managed to move out of the bottom five at any point during practice so it was so surprise when he was eliminated at the end of the first round of qualifying, putting him 18th on the grid and behind his team mate for the start of the race. Fortunately that kept them both out of danger for the events of the opening lap and good race craft enabled Magnussen to leap up to ninth place by the time the safety car was scrambled. He was able to maintain the position after the restart until Daniil Kvyat got the better of him on lap 13, but reality hit back when he dropped to 14th after his single pit stop of the afternoon after which he found himself stuck in traffic. He was unable to make any further forward progress and was overtaken by Alex Albon and Antonio Giovinazzi in the closing laps, but did at last manage to hold Sebastian Vettel at bay all the way to the finish line.
Antonio Giovinazzi (P11): 7/10
It seems a long time ago now that Antonio Giovinazzi picked up his first (and so far only) two championship points of the season back at the start of July in Austria, but he came close to adding to his tally this weekend with a determined drive in Sochi. It hadn't been the greatest of build-ups for the Alfa Romeo driver who was last-but-one on the timesheets at the end of Friday's practice session, and there was little chance that he would make it out of the first round of qualifying on Saturday. Starting the race from 17th place kept him out of harm's way and he was able to benefit from the misfortunes of others to leap up to 12th place. He made only one pit stop on lap 16 and after that just kept working away trying to make any progress he could. He spent much of the afternoon shadowing Romain Grosjean and finally managed to pass the Haas on lap 39. Eight laps later, Giovinazzi put Grosjean's team mate Kevin Magnussen to the sword as well to pick up 11th place, tantalisingly close to the points and a much stronger afternoon than Kimi Raikkonen on the other side of the garage had been able to achieve.
