Carlos Sainz (P6, 8 pts): 8.5/10
As Charles Leclerc clearly demonstrated, Silverstone proved to be an unexpectedly strong weekend for Ferrari. Unfortunately a couple of setbacks - neither of them his fault - prevented Carlos Sainz from fully benefitting from the opportunity. He was in the top six in first practice but his qualifying was less productive and he was disappointed to be in P9 for the sprint race. That put him alongside George Russell at the start and the pair clashed on the opening lap: while Russell would get a penalty, it was little compensation for Sainz who would now start Sunday's race from tenth. When the lights went out he was able to pass Esteban Ocon and stay ahead of a storming Kimi Raikkonen, and then jumped Fernando Alonso at the restart to put himself up to sixth place after Sebastian Vettel spun out. However dirty air and a lack of straight line speed meant he was unable to do anything about passing Daniel Ricciardo. When the pit stop cycle began he briefly found himself as part of a Ferrari 1-2 in the lead, but his stop was agonisingly slow due to an issue with the left front wheel gun costing him any chance of capitalising on his early gains. Back in sixth, that's where he stayed for the rest of the afternoon.
Daniel Ricciardo (P5, 10 pts): 8.5/10
After a troubled start to the season following his move from Renault to McLaren over the winter, this was a much better showing from Daniel Ricciardo who was looking back to his old self throughout the whole weekend. He was solidly in the top ten in every session on Friday and Saturday, and lined up alongside his team mate Lando Norris on the third row of the grid for Sunday's Grand Prix. After effectively gaining a position following Max Verstapen's first lap retirement, Ricciardo wasn't quite able to follow Norris past Valtteri Bottas at the restart but nonetheless settled into fifth place ahead of Carlos Sainz through to the pit stops on lap 21. A hold up for Sainz during his own stop enabled Ricciardo to keep the position once the pit stops had cycled through, and the Aussie was calmly able to soak up everything that Sainz then could throw at him for the remainder of the afternoon on his way to his best result yet for McLaren. "It's the first time this year that I've had a top five," he pointed out later. "I've still got areas to work on with myself, and getting the car more to my liking, but nonetheless it was good to hold off Carlos. He was a lot quicker!"
