Esteban Ocon (P8, 4 pts): 7.5/10
Like his Alpine team mate Fernando Alonso, Esteban Ocon was happy to be back in the points in Sao Paulo after two races without scoring. Both drivers looked solid at Interlagos, although it was Alonso who pipped Ocon to making it into the final top ten pole shoot-out round in qualifying. Not that it mattered, as Ocon had the better sprint race and moved up to eighth place on the grid for Sunday's Grand Prix. He dropped two places at the start and then fell behind Daniel Ricciardo at the restart following the safety car, but was up to eighth again by the time he made a late initial pit stop on lap 28. He got stuck behind Ricciardo again for a lengthy mid-race spell but once the McLaren suffered a power unit failure he and Alonso were able to team up to take the attack to Pierre Gasly. While the AlphaTauri ultimately proved too fast it helped the two Alpines finish in the points, with Ocon being handed back the lead position on the penultimate lap after having previously courteously allowed Alonso to pass to try his hand at attacking Gasly.
Pierre Gasly (P7, 6 pts): 8/10
A really strong weekend for Pierre Gasly was marred only by an unfortunate loss of positions for the AlphaTauri in the sprint race which compromised what he could do in the Grand Prix. Before that, Gasly had been P5 in FP1 and then put himself onto the second row of the grid for the sprint race, confirming once again that he's currently consistently the 'best of the rest' behind the Mercedes and Red Bull drivers. Unfortunately the soft tyre gambit that worked so well elsewhere backfired for him and he lost three positions before the first corner. He was the victim of an exquisite pass by Lewis Hamilton in the closing laps of the 24-lap race, but that hardly mattered as the Mercedes' engine penalty restored Gasly to seventh on the grid for the start of Sunday's Grand Prix - where he soon had Hamilton blast pass him for the second time in 24 hours. That was hardly any surprise, and Gasly's attention was more on the threat posed by the likes of Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo and Carlos Sainz. Two were swiftly dispatched but Sainz was simply too strong, and in the latter stages of the race he had to turn his focus to successfully repelling threats from Alpine drivers Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso for seventh place.
