George Russell (P12): 7.5/10
George Russell missed out on first practice to Roy Nissany which put him behind the curve when it came to the afternoon session, where he was the slowest man of all and six tenths behind Nicholas Latifi. That was in part due to having several faster lap times deleted for exceeding track limits, and when he arrived on Saturday he have been happy to hear that those track limits had been withdrawn overnight. He went on to finish final practice ahead of Kimi Raikkonen and both Haas cars. Another sparking Q1 performance saw him through to the second round of qualifying, and he duly started the race from 14th on the grid. He suffered a terrible start and dropped to the back, but did better after the red flag and marched his way up to 12th by the time the first round of pit stops began - the result of which saw him peak in eighth place before it came time for his own service. For the remainder of the race he managed to keep on top of the threat of Sebastian Vettel while making successful moves on Antonio Giovinazzi and Kevin Magnussen, and he did everything he could to get the better of Daniil Kvyat but ultimately had to settle for 12th place - once again so near to earning his first championship point, but still not quite there yet.
Daniil Kvyat (P11): 6.5/10
Daniil Kvyat was certainly in the thick of things this week, playing a pivotal if unwelcome role in both of the two dramatic incidents at the start of the Bahrain Grand Prix. Prior to that he'd made good progress during qualifying after a poor FP1 in which he was a lowly 17th. By the time it got to qualifying it seemed that both AlphaTauris were strong contenders to make it through to Q3, although in the end both Kvyat and Pierre Gasly only just managed to scrape through. Starting from tenth on the grid put Kvyat at the heart of the action when the lights went out, and he was minding his own business in the middle of the track when suddenly Romain Grosjean veered across his path. Contact meant that the Haas spun off into a dreadful impact with the barrier at the exit of turn 3, but Kvyat's car was unharmed and he was able to take the restart. This time he got to turn 8 before making further contact, this time with Lance Stroll which left the Racing Point upside down. Amazingly Kvyat's own suspension survived the impact, but the Russian was handed a ten-second penalty for causing the collision by sticking his nose down the inside of the corner where it didn't belong. After that Kvyat kept his head down and made a solid comeback through the order with passes on the Williams and Alfa Romeo cars as well as Kevin Magnussen and Sebastian Vettel. However catching Charles Leclerc before the final safety car came out proved impossible, and he finished just shy of making a return to the points.
