Alexander Albon (P10, 1 pt): 7.5/10
After the success of his maiden podium last time out, Alex Albon had to be content with the rather less shining achievement of picking up a single championship point in Sochi - and even that proved to be very hard work. Once again, the Thai driver struggled to match his Red Bull team mate's single lap pace in practice and in qualifying he ended up slowest of the ten runners that made it through to the final pole shoot-out round. This situation was compounded by a gearbox penalty that dropped him to 15th place on the grid the following day. The team tried its best to find some sort of strategic boost for him, calling him into the pits under the initial safety car for an opportunistic switch from the soft to hard compound tyres. That left him having fun vying with his pals Lando Norris and George Russell at the restart, and he worked his way back up to 11th before needing to make a second stop for a new set of mediums on lap 27 which gave him the pace to make several passes in the second half of the race and finish in the top ten despite a time penalty for not following the rules for returning to the track at turn 2. In the circumstances it was a very decent battling performance.
Pierre Gasly (P9, 2 pts): 7/10
Two races on from his maiden F1 victory at Monza, Pierre Gasly is firmly back in the trenches. After his early elimination in Tuscany, he was able to get his head down this weekend and put in a solid performance in practice which saw him trade the upper hand back and forth with his AlphaTauri team mate Daniil Kvyat over the course of the three practice sessions. Gasly was on top in qualifying and made it through to Q3 to set himself up in ninth place on the grid for the start of the race, and he stayed out of trouble in the opening laps to pick up two places thanks to the retirements of Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris. His first pit stop on lap 18 dropped him down the order and saw him running behind Alex Albon until the Red Bull made a second stop mid-race. That left Gasly eyeing up Kimi Raikkonen, and he pulled off the pass on lap 34 which brought him up behind his team mate where he was obliged to hold station. A brief Virtual Safety Car on lap 43 prompted the team to bring him in for fresh tyres, and while it cost him positions to Albon and Lando Norris he was soon able to get them back by the chequered flag.
