Sergio Perez (P4, Fastest lap, 13 pts): 8.5/10
If not for the timing of a Virtual Safety Car, Sergio Perez could very well have been standing on the podium in Sao Paulo in place of Valtteri Bottas. Despite missing out on that prize, this was still one of the Mexican's strongest weekends of the season, beginning with third place in FP1 where he was right on the heels of his Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen. Like Verstappen he lost a place at the start of the sprint to a driver daring to run on the faster soft tyres, which meant he started Sunday's race immediately behind Verstappen from fourth on the grid, and that proved crucial when they both made successful dives down the inside of the cars alongside them. In Perez' case he was even able to carry this into a second pass, this time on pole sitter Valtteri Bottas although the Finn later got the place back with the help of that fortunate VSC. Not that Perez' job was done for the day as he still had to put up a mighty defence against Lewis Hamilton and even managed to briefly re-pass the Mercedes for position before the world champion was able to finally slam the door shut. After that he was given one lap at the very end of the race to snatch the bonus point for fastest lap away from Hamilton, and he duly delivered. Excellent work from Checo on all levels!
Valtteri Bottas (Pole, P3, 18 pts): 8/10
And here in a nutshell is a demonstration of why Valtteri Bottas is the perfect number two driver for any big team, while not being the top dog or a future world champion. He's just not in the league of Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, even in the same equipment and given the same opportunities. He did well to take the lead from Verstappen at the start of the sprint race - the soft tyres helped, and as the Dutch driver proved the following day it was definitely a benefit to starting on the inside line into the first corner at Interlagos - but he proved a disappointment on Sunday. Not only did he fail to block Verstappen but he also opened the door to Sergio Perez as well. While Hamilton was scything his way through all the top drivers, Bottas thereafter managed to make no further forward progress until a fortunately timed Virtual Safety Car gave him an opportunistic chance to make a pit stop that leap-frogged him back ahead of Perez for a podium position. But what Sunday really proved was that Bottas simply isn't in the same league as his Mercedes team mate or the two Red Bulls; we wish him well at Alfa Romeo in 2022.
