Lando Norris (P4, 12 pts): 9/10
A lowly 18th place in first practice was not the ideal start for Lando Norris in Bahrain, but he shrugged it off in the nighttime session when he was seventh quickest and four tenths quicker than team mate Carlos Sainz. In qualifying he had a bit of a scare when he scraped into the second round by just 0.027s (although in truth he had it covered with a final run to come). After Sainz' brake failure at the start of Q2, Norris was left to fly the McLaren colours and while he made it through to the final round he was nonetheless disappointed with his eventual grid position of ninth. But it was a different case on Sunday, when everything seemed to fall Lando's way: he clashed with Esteban Ocon at the start and damaged his front wing, but fortunately the team was able to replace it without penalty during the red flag stoppage. He then picked up four places in the opening laps to put himself up to fifth place, which included making swift work of Pierre Gasly. Sergio Perez' late retirement handed him an extra position in the closing laps, although he was more concerned about nearly running into a marshal running across the 'live' track on his way to the burning Racing Point. A safety car ensued, locking down Norris' position, which was a very important result for McLaren in their battle for third in the constructors championship with Racing Point, Renault and Ferrari.
Alex Albon (P3, 15 pts): 8.5/10
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times... Alex Albon's nasty accident in FP2 felt like it could be the final straw in terms of his hopes of holding on to the Red Bull seat in 2021. It was just a typical practice accident, but it couldn't have come at a worse time for the Thai driver. It was particularly unfortunate given that earlier in the day he'd almost matched Max Verstappen's time - just 0.008s separated them - which is the sort of thing the team have been wanting from him all along. Fortunately the mechanics were able to put together a new car for Saturday, and Albon qualified alongside Verstappen on the second row of the grid allowing him to play a proper role in team strategy for the race. The 'dirty' side of the grid took its toll but he was still able to get ahead of Valtteri Bottas - although race control undid that when calculating the restart order following the red flag. When the Finn was sidelined with an early puncture, Albon found himself back up to fourth place, which is where he remained for most of the race where he shadowed Sergio Perez. It seemed that podium would remain tantalisingly just out of reach, but with four laps to go the Racing Point suddenly started throwing out oil, smoke and finally flames and the prize went to Albon after all. And with it, his hopes of staying with Red Bull next year just got a whole lot brighter.
