Nicholas Latifi (Oil leak, Lap 53): 7/10
Coming to the end of his first season in Formula 1, Nicholas Latifi unexpectedly found himself the senior man at Williams this weekend when George Russell was called up by Mercedes. Rookie replacement Jack Aitken was understandably not much of a challenge to the Canadian as he got to grips with the FW43, and Latifi was the fastest of the pair throughout practice and qualifying on his way to 16th on the grid. The early retirements of Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen helped him make up two places on the first lap but he was soon picked off by the recovering Sergio Perez after the first safety car period ended. After that he looked comfortable running in 14th place and got the better of Kevin Magnussen on lap 16 to put himself right behind Sebastian Vettel until it was time to make his sole pit stop of the day on lap 27. He changed to the medium compound, inevitably putting him a lap down from the leaders on the short Bahrain outer loop circuit. He was comfortably minding his own business in 13th when a rare reliability issue on the Williams (a suspected oil leak) obliged him to park on the side of the track with immediate effect on lap 53, to become the third and final retirement of the night.
Pietro Fittipaldi (P17): 6.5/10
After last week's miraculous escape by Romain Grosjean, Pietro Fittipaldi was called up by Haas to make his Formula 1 debut in is stead for this week's night race at Sakhir, thereby becoming the first American driver to race for the US-based team. Given the fundamental weakness of the VF-20 on top of his own steep learning curve, this was always going to be more about track time and getting experience in the cockpit than anything else, and sure enough Fittipaldi tended to vie with fellow debutant Jack Aitken for wooden spoon honours throughout practice (he was ahead on Friday) and qualifying (where it was Fittipaldi who was slowest). Not that it affected the outcome unduly, as he had already inherited a grid penalty for an engine change - hardly surprising given the barbecued state of Grosjean's most recent power unit. He made a good start and was running in 16th place behind the early safety car but inevitably once the race resumed he spent much of the rest of the night at or near the back of the field. But credit where it's due: he had a mistake-free time, didn't get in anyone's way, and completed the full race distance without any drama thereby getting that vital experience he wanted. "I can say I've finished a Formula 1 race!" he beamed afterwards.
