Pierre Gasly (P6, 8 pts): 8.5/10
Another strong weekend for Pierre Gasly, who was consistently in the top six throughout all three practice sessions and easily ahead of his AlphaTauri team mate Daniil Kvyat. Both drivers were able to make it through to the final round of qualifying, although it was a close run thing for Gasly who survived the cut by a rather slender margin over Sebastian Vettel. A slightly better Q3 performance saw him starting Sunday's race from eighth, but he lost positions at the start and dropped to tenth after switching to the hard compound during the red flag stoppage. The team had opted to pursue what was now in effect a bold one-stop strategy for the Frenchman, meaning there would be just one more stop on lap 25 for a second set of the hard tyres that he would have to manage all the way to the finish. Tyre wear put him on the defensive in the closing laps and saw him lose out to the two McLaren drivers, but the late safety car for Sergio Perez' retirement not only promoted him back up to sixth but also ensured that Daniel Ricciardo had no further opportunity to make a move before the chequered flag.
Carlos Sainz (P5, 10 pts): 9.5/10
If not for that strange brake failure at the start of the second round of qualifying, it's very easy to imagine Carlos Sainz competing for a podium this weekend. He was fourth fastest in first practice, and fifth best in final practice. Comfortably through to Q2, he was just starting his first flying lap when the right-rear brake snatched and sent him into a spin at turn 1. It meant he would start the race from 15th and he was understandably angry about the costly incident, which left him viewing the race to come as 'damage control'. In fact it proved much better than that, and the gamble of starting on soft tyres - the only driver to do so - led to early gains that set up a wonderfully battling performance, not for the first time in 2020. One of his best overtakes along the way was on Charles Leclerc, which should add some spice to things when Sainz joins the Monegasque at Ferrari next season. He was easily able to take care of business with the Renault drivers, and the undercut dealt with Pierre Gasly, before he was handed another position by the late retirement of Sergio Perez. If not for that brake issue Sainz could have been starting much higher up and we can only imagine what he could have achieved on this sort of form; let's hope we get a chance to find out next week.
