Nikita Mazepin (P18): 6/10
Buoyed up by the support from the crowd at his home race Nikita Mazepin had one of his best weekends so far, beginning on Friday when he was quicker than his Haas team mate Mick Schumacher in both free practice sessions. Unfortunately he was still slowest of the 19 cars taking part in the first round of qualifying on Saturday, although all the grid penalties happening around him lifted him to 15th on the final grid - his highest starting position to date. He even gained a couple more positions once the race got underway, but paid for it shortly afterwards when the faster cars came thundering past. By lap 15 he found himself right at the back which is where he remained for the rest of the afternoon after locking up on his hard tyres. Even being one of the first drivers to pit for intermediates when the rain began to fall couldn't help him improve. "It was fun to overtake some cars that I would never be able to overtake, nevertheless we know where we stand."
Yuki Tsunoda (P17): 4/10
We had been hoping that with the pressure off about his 2022 contract, Yuki Tsunoda would be able to focus on getting his performance back to where it started so strongly back in the season opener in Bahrain. Unfortunately if anything he's going backwards. The Japanese rookie was P18 at the end of Friday's practice sessions, faster only than the two Haas drivers, while his AlphaTauri team mate Pierre Gasly was flying high in third place in the timesheets. The wet track conditions on Saturday did mean he was able to make it into the second round of qualifying, and he duly started the race in 12th only to fall straight to the back on the opening lap complaining of balance issues that he was never able to satisfactorily able to overcome in the Grand Prix where he was was up to two seconds slower than Gasly in race trim. His disappointment was evident in his post-race comments: "I just need to reset after this weekend and work on my baseline performance, so I can start finishing in the points again."
