Nicholas Latifi (P14): 7/10
Given the constraints of the Williams, Nicholas Latifi had a rather productive weekend in Bahrain. He was the quickest of his team in both of Friday's sessions (the first paired up with Roy Nissany, the second with George Russell having to make up for lost time in the cockpit) but by Saturday he was back to being dead last on the timing screens. That's also where he qualified later in the evening, while Russell had once again been able to progress to Q2. But he had a better time of it on Sunday, making up multiple positions at the start (and the restart) which soon saw him up to 13th place and contemplating the possibility of points if enough cars ahead hit problems. However his pit stop on lap 21 dropped him all the way back to 18th and he struggled to make any headway from there, although he did eventually get the better of both Alfa Romeos and the sole surviving Haas. By the time the chequered flag came out he was even applying pressure to Sebastian Vettel. All in all it was a very solid performance from the Canadian and likely the best he could do in the circumstances.
Sebastian Vettel (P13): 5.5/10
Unfortunately Sebastian Vettel's return to form (and to the podium) in Turkey has proved to be very much the exception to this year's rule and the four-time world champion was back among the also-rans in Bahrain. Neither Vettel nor Charles Leclerc were able to break into the top ten throughout practice, and frankly it was a bit of a surprise that they came as close as they did to making it into the final round of qualifying. Vettel had the satisfaction of starting the race ahead of his Ferrari team mate and on medium tyres while Leclerc was gambling on the hard compound. Unfortunately we never really got to see a fair comparison between the two approaches. Vettel clashed with Lance Stroll at the start and then got swallowed up by the field once the race resumed after the red flag stoppage, with Vettel complaining that the car lacked straight line pace. He did better once he was running in clearer air and made some headway during the latter half of the race to finish ahead of both Alfa Romeos and sole remaining Haas, but to find himself as the filling in a Williams sandwich at the chequered flag was not the way Vettel would have been expecting his day to turn out.
