Lando Norris (P8, 4 pts): 7/10
Having been the star of the show in the opening rounds of 2021, Lando Norris was back to being something of a supporting player in Spain. He started well enough in fourth place in practice on Friday morning, but both he and his McLaren team mate Daniel Ricciardo were out of the top ten in FP2. Despite that blip, both men easily made it through to the final round of qualifying on Saturday, and Lando even set hearts racing by sprinting to the top of the times in Q1. But in the process he'd been impeded by Nikita Mazepin and forced him to use an extra set of tyres to set that flying lap, and it came back to bite him when he was lacking a new set for Q3. As a result he was left down in ninth on the grid, two places behind Ricciardo. While the Aussie picked up a further two places at the start of the race, Norris found himself firmly stuck behind Carlos Sainz until the first round of pit stops. Only in the closing stint did Norris finally succeed in eating into Ricciardo's five place advantage, and by the time they reached the chequered flag there was only one car (Sainz) between the two McLarens. Not that Norris will be happy with the final result, the first time he's been outside the top five this season. Ricciardo finished on the lead lap to be 'best of the rest' behind the assembled ranks of Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari, while Norris suffered the ignominy of being lapped by Lewis Hamilton a dozen laps before the end.
Carlos Sainz (P7, 6 pts): 7.5/10
Those of us who feared that Carlos Sainz would suffer at the hands of Charles Leclerc after switching to Ferrari over the winter couldn't be happier to be proved wrong, with the Spaniard consistently proving to be a close match for his new team mate for much of the weekend. Just a few hundredths separated them in FP1, and again on Saturday morning Leclerc was just a tenth quicker with both comfortably in the top four on the timing screens before easily making it through to the final round of qualifying in the afternoon. However, a poor getaway saw Sainz lose two places at the start of Sunday's race when he was immediately passed by Daniel Ricciardo and Sergio Perez, and he then spent the first 21 laps stuck behind Esteban Ocon before making the first of two pit stops which successfully allowed him to achieve the undercut on the Alpine. However Sainz then found himself frustrated behind Sergio Perez; he and Ricciardo both made their second stops on the same lap and it was the McLaren who retained track position which lasted for the remainder of the race until the chequered flag, trapping Sainz in seventh. "I'm not very satisfied with P7 today," he admitted, insisting that the car had been worthy of fourth. "We still lack a bit of speed on the straights, which makes us struggle for overtaking. We must work on that."
