Charles Leclerc (P10, 1 pt): 7/10
Ferrari's problems with straight line speed compared to their rivals was certainly on full display this weekend in Bahrain. Neither Charles Leclerc nor Sebastian Vettel made it into the top ten in any of the three practice sessions and by FP3 Leclerc was down in 15th and trailing his team mate. Given that build up they actually came closer than expected to making it into the final round of qualifying, but ultimately Leclerc found himself starting the race from 12th on the grid and doubtless irked to have been pipped by Vettel. However on Sunday the situation was emphatically reversed; while Vettel was going backwards, Leclerc was making the most of it and after the restart he had managed to bound his way up to seventh, having traded his starter set of hard tyres for the more favourable mediums which saw him briefly peak in sixth place. Returning to the hard compound for the rest of the race rather took the edge off things and he started to slide backwards. He was lapped just before the safety car was deployed for Sergio Perez' retirement, which itself handed Leclerc the extra spot he needed to ensure that the weekend hadn't been entirely pointless.
Esteban Ocon (P9, 2 pts): 7.5/10
Esteban Ocon has been struggling to match the speed of his more experienced team mate Daniel Ricciardo all season, but this weekend he came within a whisker of doing so. In fact he was quicker than the Australian in first practice, and by the time the Renault pair reached the final round of qualifying only 0.002s separated them - a great job by Ocon. He was also a match for Ricciardo in the race which saw the pair locked together for long spells, and the team having to manage their drivers' expectations to ensure that there were no costly clashes along the way. Unfortunately neither driver seemed able to find the pace to drag them any further closer to the podium: Ocon himself was unable to stop the recovering Valtteri Bottas passing him on fresher tyres, and both Renaults were a long way off their McLaren arch-rivals - although Ocon and Lando Norris had briefly clashed at the start of the race, fortunately with no lasting consequences for either driver. A solid day for the team albeit also tinged with slight disappointment, but certainly encouraging for the Frenchman.
