George Russell (P14): 7.5/10
Once upon a time, George Russell making it through to the second round of qualifying produced gasps of amazement. These days we simply expect it, and he duly delivered again despite having missed out on one of the three practice sessions when Williams reserve driver Roy Nissany was given some track time in his place. Even so, 15th on the grid felt a little on the underwhelming side for the Briton, and the race itself never really sparked into life for him either. He lost two places at the start and found himself trailing Mick Schumacher and Yuki Tsunoda, until the AlphaTauri departed the field of battle with engine failure on lap 7. That triggered a safety car, which Russell and his team mate Nicholas Latifi used as a 'free' pit stop. While Latifi would end up forced to make three stops in total, Russell was able to run the rest of the race with just one further visit to pit lane on lap 28. However, having peaked in tenth place on lap 52 and battling for position with Fernando Alonso, he then suffered from excessive tyre wear just as others behind him switched to fresher rubber, dropping him to 14th at the line. "I felt really confident, however the result doesn't quite reflect that," he said later. "The tyres were on the limit, I was on the limit, and the car was on the limit."
Sebastian Vettel (P13): 6.5/10
Finally equipped with the new Aston Martin aero upgrade package that Lance Stroll had enjoyed last week in Portugal, Sebastian Vettel had a spring in his step on Friday and was eighth fastest in FP1. But after that, the four-time world champion started to slide back through the order and when it came to qualifying it was touch and go as to whether he would even survive the cut at the end of Q1. He did so, and duly started the race from 13th from where he got the jump on Pierre Gasly and spent the next 20 laps running behind Stroll and Fernando Alonso. The three were the first drivers to make scheduled pit stops around lap 21, dropping Vettel all the way back to 18th. From there he made quick work of Gasly and Mick Schumacher but ended up stuck behind Alonso for an extended period. When he made his second pit stop on lap 38 he came out behind Kimi Raikkonen, who proved similarly obstinate. On lap 53, Vettel was picked off by Gasly who was busy recovering from a five second penalty, but in the closing laps he was able to dispense with George Russell to cross the line back in 13th place. "I was running out of tyre life at the end, even though we went for the two-stop strategy," he said later. "But it was difficult to fight the cars around me in the closing laps when they had a tyre advantage."
