Esteban Ocon (P14): 6/10
A curiously tepid weekend for the Frenchman, who seems to have gone into a bit of a mini-slump since his multi-year contract extension with Alpine was announced. The weekend stated brightly enough - he was third fastest at the end of Friday's practice - but the pace deserted him on Saturday and he was a surprise elimination at the end of the first round of qualifying, leaving him starting the race from 17th on the grid. Incidents ahead of him on the opening lap saw him rise to 14th place where he continued to run behind Daniel Ricciardo for much of the first stint; having started on the medium tyres he toughed it out until lap lap 35 before switching to a set of the hard compound after which he found himself stuck behind Kimi Raikkonen. He was passed by Ricciardo on lap 53 but had his own success with Antonio Giovinazzi on lap 62, and he ended up following Ricciardo home where he picked up an unremarkable 14th place - a net one place gain on the day.
Daniel Ricciardo (P13): 6.5/10
So how did a driver who was second fastest in Friday afternoon practice end up missing the cut at the end of the second round of qualifying 24 hours later? "Not the best day, I don't really know why," Ricciardo reported after qualifying in a lowly 13th place. Things were looking brighter on race day and it appeared that he'd found some answers to his predicament, with the incidents involving Charles Leclerc, Pierre Gasly and Antonio Giovinazzi contributing to a first lap gain of four places. But by lap 7 he was down where he'd started as a result of problems with the power unit that put him on the back foot. Fortunately the McLaren pit wall was able to offer remote assistance and Ricciardo was able to continue, but his race had been compromised beyond repair and points were now firmly out of reach. A long first stint saw him running behind Raikkonen for much of the remaining time, and an attempt to undercut the Alfa Romeo was thwarted when the Finn pitted first. Ricciardo then had to pick his way round Esteban Ocon and Antonio Giovinazzi to get back to 13th place where he would remain until the finish line
