Valtteri Bottas (P14): 5/10
This was the weekend when Valtteri Bottas needed every scintilla of skill and every scrap of luck he could muster if there was to be any chance of extending the battle for the 2020 drivers championship for another race. Unfortunately both requirements seemed to utterly desert him this weekend, and it was without doubt his worst overall Grand Prix of the season. It was by no means all the Finn's fault and it was shocking to see just how badly both Mercedes performed on the resurfaced Istanbul Park track right from the start of practice. Cold and wet weather only made things worse, and ninth place in qualifying was his poorest showing since Belgium in 2018. The W11 was still a handful at the start of the race, but it was a clash of Renault team mates that ended up spinning Bottas off the track in turn 1. Although he was able to continue, the steering was compromised and more spins followed - six in total - and he was embarrassed to be lapped by his team mate on lap 46. By this time the title battle was well and truly over, and sadly for Bottas it had ended not with a bang but a whimper, Bottas having been thoroughly put in the corner by Lewis Hamilton.
Pierre Gasly (P13): 6/10
It was fascinating to see which teams adapted well to the unusual challenges of Istanbul Park this weekend, and which didn't. Sadly AlphaTauri were in the latter camp and were more or less anonymous in Turkey. Although Pierre Gasly was fourth fastest in FP1 this had slipped to seventh in the afternoon and then to 14th in the rain-hit Saturday session. He struggled into Q2 in qualifying (which is more than Daniil Kvyat was able to do) but was then slowest in the second round. Not that it mattered, as a number of additional power unit elements fitted overnight relegated him to the back of the grid for the start of the race. He gained six positions at the start and briefly peaked inside the top ten before the first of two pit stops on lap 10 dropped him back to 15th from where he laboured with limited success for the rest of the afternoon. Points never really seemed within reach, and he probably took his mind off things by daydreaming about the halcyon days of Monza.
