Max Verstappen (Retired, Lap 46, Fastest lap): 9.5/10
Max Verstappen deserves high marks this week because he barely put a foot wrong in Baku. He was fastest in first practice, although narrowly pipped by a tenth of a second in FP2 by his Red Bull team mate Sergio Perez, and went into Saturday afternoon's qualifying session the favourite to claim pole. Unfortunately a late red flag in Q3 robbed him of the chance to make a final run and he was miffed to be relegated to the second row of the grid for the race. No matter, he soon followed Lewis Hamilton past Charles Leclerc, and then easily took care of Hamilton with an overcut during the pit stops. After that it looked like an easy run to the finish with Perez nipping harmlessly at his heels. He was probably counting up how big his lead in the championship would be after this when the tyre failed without warning and Verstappen was planted in the wall rather than celebrating the win that was rightfully his.
George Russell (Retired, Lap 49): 7/10
George Russell was faster than his Williams team mate in both of Friday's practice session, but then slipped three tenths behind Nicholas Latifi on Saturday morning after suffering a water leak. It was just a blip, because despite getting out late after a lunchtime power unit change Russell had no trouble progressing to the second round (although having two of his rivals crash out made it pretty easy for him). The team didn't seem inclined to really press hard in Q2 and so he started from 15th on the grid, and then pitted immediately for a new set of hard tyres in the hope of finding space on track to work with them he came back out. It didn't pay off and by the time the safety car closed up the field again after Lance Stroll's accident he was back where he'd started. Unfortunately a gearbox problem during the red flag stoppage forced him out of the final two-lap sprint showdown, but it's not as though points ever looked likely anyway.
