Pierre Gasly (P12): 6/10
After a bright start to the season for AlphaTauri, its home race proved a case of taking several steps backward, and for once it was Pierre Gasly who was off the pace and running behind his team mate Yuki Tsunoda for the whole weekend. The team had brought in a lot of changes for Imola, including a new floor on the AT03, and it clearly either wasn't working - or perhaps simply not suiting the Frenchman, especially in wet conditions. Both AlphaTauris failed to make the cut at the end of first round of qualifying, but while Tsunoda was able to bounce back and make forward progress in the sprint, Gasly remained unmoved in P17 when the chequered flag came out on Saturday. His best chance came at the start of the Grand Prix where he gained three spots, but that was about the extent of it. He ran the first stint in 13th place behind Esteban Ocon, but lost out in the first round of pit stops and dropped behind Alex Albon. The Williams should have been easy meat, but instead it thwarted everything Gasly could throw at it. The delayed enabling of DRS was no help as the midfield was closely packed by this point so everyone benefitted to the same extent. Gasly remained in Albon's tyre tracks for the rest of the afternoon, although he did have the satisfaction of keeping Lewis Hamilton behind him for an impressive 44 laps.
Alexander Albon (P11): 7/10
Buoyed by having scored Williams' first championship point last time out in Melbourne (apparently they're calling him the 'tyre whisperer' at Grove these days - feel free to roll your eyes at mechanics' humour), Albon was hoping to be tickling the top ten again this weekend with the help of the changeable weather conditions. Unfortunately those hopes didn't survive long into Q1, which saw the right rear brakes of the FW44 catch fire and scatter carbon fibre and rubber across the circuit before he could even so much as complete a push lap. Starting the sprint from the back row he did at least gain a position from team mate Nicholas Latifi, and Guanyu Zhou's retirement meant he was P18 on the grid for the Grand Prix. He got a good start when the lights went out and tucked in behind Pierre Gasly in P15; the pair were among the first to pit on lap 17 and Albon was able to jump Gasly for position on lap 20. He spent the rest of the afternoon running behind Esteban Ocon and ahead of Gasly and Lewis Hamilton, with everyone picking up DRS which negated its effect and ensured that there was no change of position by the finish. Ocon's penalty for an unsafe release meant that Albon was classified in 11th, only one spot away from achieving a points encore after all - not bad in a race that saw only two retirements.