Nico Hulkenberg (P12): 6/10
Back for a second week in place of the still unwell Sebastian Vettel, Nico Hulkenberg was hoping to make a better fist of it in Jeddah than he had at Bahrain where there had been no time at all to prepare for his substitute teacher role. It goes without saying that the Aston Martin isn't really currently in a strong enough state to be battling for points, and 12th place is about as good as he could have realistically been hoping for. He'd been solidly in the bottom five throughout practice and never looked inclined to make it through to the second round of qualifying, and instead tried to think his way around the situation by making the strategic choice to start on the hard compound tyres. With those drivers on mediums pitting before or during the safety car for Nicholas Latifi's accident, Hulkenberg stayed out and took the restart in ninth. But that proved the highpoint of his weekend and from there he gradually went backwards. When he did pit under the Virtual Safety Car he ended up falling to the back. While he ended up ahead of team mate Lance Stroll, that was only because the Canadian had been knocked off course by Alex Albon. It was still a very solid, respectable showing for an "old rusty guy", but it does feel like it's probably time for him to turn the keys over to Vettel for good this time.
Guanyu Zhou (P11): 6.5/10
Guanyu Zhou impressed in his first Formula 1 race last week in Bahrain, but it was a more up-and down performance from the Chinese driver more in keeping with a young rookie still feeling his way at the top level of motorsport. He struggled to get to grips with the tricky Jeddah Corniche Circuit in practice but still managed to make the cut at the end of the first round of qualifying and duly picked up 12th place on the grid after Daniel Ricciardo's grid penalty was applied. But it all went terribly wrong when the lights went out on Sunday and the Alfa Romeo served up a double serving of wheel spin that left him stationary on the grid as the cars behind streamed past. Heading into the first corner he clipped the left rear of Ricciardo's McLaren and it was fortunate that neither car suffered race-ending suspension damage. It had put Zhou at the back, but he gathered himself together and picked off Nicholas Latifi, Nico Hulkenberg, Alex Albon and Lance Stroll before the first round of stops. Unfortunately a mix up in the Alfa Romeo pits meant a five second penalty for going off-track in his move on Albon wasn't properly served, and in lieu of that he was slapped with a full drive-thru which put him back at the very back. From where another pass on Hulkenberg in the closing laps put him on the cusp of taking his second championship point despite all the drama.
