Sebastian Vettel (P8, 4 pts): 7.5/10
Sebastian Vettel's performance in Melbourne - his first race of 2022 after missing Bahrain and Jeddah due to COVID - was so awful that many feared it might even be career-ending for the four-time former world champion. Happily, Imola suggested that we might able to quickly put that behind us as a mere blip, because Vettel was looking much more like his old self again this weekend. A solid eighth in practice correctly forecast a place in the final round of qualifying later in the day, but P9 on the grid didn't save him from losing four places in the dry, warm conditions of the sprint race on Saturday. He had a much better start to the Grand Prix and was back in ninth by the time the safety car was scrambled for marshals to retrieve Carlos Sainz's Ferrari which had got beached in the gravel at Tamburello. Fernando Alonso's retirement gained him a further place after the restart, and he got the jump on Kevin Magnussen during the first round of pit stops. He was on course for seventh until Yuki Tsunoda got the better of him on lap 53, but he still picked up four points helping a relieved Aston Martin to finally get their season underway with both cars finishing in the top ten this week.
Yuki Tsunoda (P7, 6 pts): 8/10
It was an odd weekend for ALphaTauri. After a strong start to the season they looked under the weather in Imola. Both Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly failed to make the first cut in qualifying, albeit in admittedly tricky track conditions. Perhaps more significantly, for the first time Tsunoda seemed to hold the upper hand over his team mate and finished every session this weekend quicker than Gasly on the timesheets, although they were closely matched throughout in terms of speed. The warm, dry conditions of Saturday seemed to suit the AT03 better and Tsunoda gained four places in the sprint, but the rain was back in time for the start of the Grand Prix the following day. Incidents and retirements ahead of him put him up to P9, initially behind Sebastian Vettel and then tracking Kevin Magnussen after the first round of pit stops. It took until lap 46 before Tsunoda finally found a way past the Haas, and then on lap 53 he was able to put the Aston Martin in the rear view mirror as well to finish P7 - no easy feat with overtaking proving tricky among the DRS-congested parade of midfielders.
