Lance Stroll (P12): 5/10
Lance Stroll's Aston Martin team mate Sebastian Vettel was having a simply atrocious weekend; and frankly, Stroll did little better in Melbourne. He was two seconds off the pace in first practice, but his troubles really started in FP2 when he was first impeded by Carlos Sainz and then caused a red flag in FP2 by depositing bodywork from the AMR22. The following morning saw him bring FP3 to a premature finish when he veered off course into the barriers at turn 11, and the mechanics had barely been able to repair the car in time to get him out in time for qualifying. A misunderstanding with Williams' Nichols Latifi then undid all their hard work before he could even set a lap time. Allowed by the stewards to start the race the race from the back row, Stroll managed to keep his nose clean on Sunday and benefitted from the timing of the second safety car to get a 'free' pit stop that put him into 13th for the restart, quickly picking up a further place with a pass on Valtteri Bottas. Late pit stops for those who had started on hard tyres saw him pick up further places, but his own tyres started to go off badly in the closing laps and he succumbed to passes from Bottas, Pierre Gasly and Guanyu Zhou as he sank like a stone. He was already out of the points by the time his five second penalty for weaving on the straights was applied after the chequered flag which put him out of his misery.
Guanyu Zhou (P11): 6.5/10
One thing you have to say for Formula 1's newest recruit: Guanyu Zhou is certainly consistent! He might not have repeated the points success of his debut in Bahrain, but Alfa Romeo's rising star only missed out on more by one place in both Jeddah and now Melbourne. And he's not blotting his copybook in the process, staying away from trouble while never making it easy for those around him to pass. For a rookie in just his third race these are all commendable and promising signs. Consistency was also the watchword again this weekend when he was P15 in all three practice sessions, and he took advantage of the red flags in qualifying to go one better and put himself 14th on the grid for the race. He lost a spot to Mick Schumacher at the start but regained it when Carlos Sainz retired. Unfortunately he had pitted just before the safety car for Sebastian Vettel's accident closed up the field, which set him back behind the Haas down in 17th. He followed Schumacher's example and got around Yuki Tsunoda on lap 34, and then finally got the better of the German as well on lap 50. He focussed on fending off Kevin Magnussen in the closing laps but there was one final pass on Lance Stroll, although the new tyres on Alex Albon's Williams were a step too far for him to hunt down. Despite missing out on his second point in F1, he did well to complete a very solid debut down under.
