Nicholas Latifi (P18): 6.5/10
Nicholas Latifi was consistently faster than his Haas rivals throughout practice, and also faster than Roy Nissany in FP1 when the Williams reserve driver sat in for George Russell. When it came to qualifying, Latifi came agonisingly close to ending Russell's spotless record of out-performing his team mates, even though that would have been at least in part to the disruption of the red flags. Even so, missing out on progressing to Q2 by just two thousandths of a second was a strong statement from the Canadian who has developed into a safe pair of hands for the team, and probably performing at the top end of the FW43B's realistic capability. In the race, a lack of grip right from the start meant there wasn't much he could do, with Lance Stroll and Yuki Tsunoda quickly recovering from poor grid positions. He spent the rest of the afternoon tangling with the two Haas cars followed by a brief battle with Kimi Raikkonen. Given that by the end of the first lap he had been ahead of Russell - who went on to finish in 12th place - the end result cant help but feel underwhelming.
Kimi Raikkonen (P17): 6/10
We'd hoped that after picking up his first point of 2021 with tenth place in Baku, Kimi Raikkonen might finally be recovering his undoubted form and that he was poised to take Alfa Romeo on to further success. But clearly Circuit Paul Ricard was not to the C41's taste, and the team struggled this weekend: even though Raikkonen finished FP2 in the top ten it never looked likely he would make Q3 in qualifying, but to fall at the first hurdle was a definite disappointment even if it was explained in part by all the red flag interruptions. Kimi is usually at his best in race trim and he duly picked up three places on the opening lap, peaking in P10 as the pit stops cycled through; but his impressive 33 lap first stint on hard tyres meant he slumped to 18th place when he returned to the track, and after that it was all he could do to overhaul Nicholas Latifi before the chequered flag. Getting around Charles Leclerc was always too much to hope for.
