Lewis Hamilton (P2, Fastest lap, 19 pts): 9/10
The irony is that we're seeing some of the best driving from Lewis Hamilton for years, even if he's not actually winning races at the moment due to the superior form of Max Verstappen and Red Bull. Hamilton was four tenths slower than his rival during Friday's practice session, and while it looked like Mercedes had turned the tables overnight coming into final practice this was soon disproven by qualifying where Verstappen was unstoppable on his way to pole position. Hamilton finished in third but was elevated to the front row by Valtteri Bottas' grid penalty, which gave Hamilton a slim chance of winning the dash up to turn 1 at the start of the race. Unfortunately even this was beyond the W12 this weekend and Verstappen easily covered him off, and then started to ease his way clear. Hamilton had nothing with which to challenge and he slid further and further behind, although still miles ahead of the rest of the field led by Bottas and Sergio Perez. That gave him the gap he needed to make a very late final stop in a successful bid for the bonus point for the fastest lap of the race, but the fact remains that Hamilton is now 18 points behind Verstappen in the drivers championship. It's starting to look like a serious trend that will be hard to reserve in 2021...
Max Verstappen (Pole, P1, 25 pts): 10/10
First in FP1, fastest in FP2, quickest in the final round of qualifying, topped off by an emphatic drive to victory on Sunday afternoon. We could have chiselled half a point off Max Verstappen for failing to pip Lewis Hamilton in final practice, or for not securing the bonus championship point for fastest lap of the race, but that would have been to miss the headline point: that this was arguably Verstappen's best, most complete, totally composed performance yet. It's as if we're seeing the former hot-headed young gun regenerate into the finished article of world champion heir-apparent before our very eyes. His dominance in Sunday's race was comparable to what we've seen from Lewis Hamilton in the recent past (and before him, from Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher) and right now it's hard to see anything stopping him from claiming the title. But then it was only a couple of months ago that everyone was confidently predicting an eighth championship for Hamilton, so things can twist and turn very fast in Formula 1. A week maybe a long time in politics but that's nothing compared to motorsport, and Verstappen is right to remain wary.
