Lance Stroll (P10, 1 pt): 7/10
Aston Martin should just paint Lance Stroll's car jet black and give it the aerodynamic styling of a Stealth fighter: as we've said a number of times now, the Canadian just seems to have the ability to blend seamlessly into the scenery and then pop up in an expectedly decent position at the chequered flag. He did it again in Miami: P16 in both of Friday's practice sessions, and a slightly better P12 in the less representative FP3, he briefly decloaked in Q3 to take a surprise tenth place on the grid while team mate Sebastian Vettel maxed out in 13th. Unfortunately his hopes of using this as a springboard to take points for the second race in succession appeared dashed when the team was forced to start both cars from pit lane due to a fuel temperature issues. Seeking to find a strategic way out of their predicament, Stroll and Vettel started on the hard compound meaning that they initially trailed around behind the similarly-shod Esteban Ocon and Nicholas Latifi. However as others ahead of them started to run out of rubber and make pit stops, the quartet gradually made progress up the order and by lap 19 Stroll found himself in 12th place running behind Fernando Alonso. The safety car on lap 41 proved a stroke of luck in the timing of his own pit stop. While he lost ground to Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo and Kevin Magnussen at the restart, a number of late race incidents and penalties for those ahead of him meant that his 12th place at the line got a premium upgrade from the stewards putting him into the top ten. Not bad at all considering the pit lane start!
Alexander Albon (P9, 2 pts): 8/10
Alex Albon had dyed his hair red for Melbourne when he took his first championship point for Williams, and reckoned it would be a good laugh to do it again in Miami. It's all a bit ironic, given the team is stripping as much paint off the FW44 as possible in order to save weight! The worst that could happen is that he would finish in the points again this weekend and find himself contractually obliged to be a redhead for the rest of the season, but of course that was hardly realistically going to happen. Although that said, he was seventh in first practice on Friday. He and Nicholas Latifi were slowest of those completing runs in the second session - no, don't look at that P7 in final practice, that's irrelevant - and he was a stolid eighteenth at the end of qualifying. Red hair or no, there was nothing suggesting that Albon's follicular habit was going to pay off a second time. The Aston Martins moving to pit lane to start the race handed Albon two places at the start, but unlike those behind him he opted to start on the mediums meaning he pitted around lap 16, along with the majority of the cars ahead. At this point he was dead last and stuck behind Lando Norris, who had suffered a slow service. Fortunately the timing of the safety car which allowed those on the hard tyres to pit on lap 41 also happened to play perfectly into Albon's hands, and at the restart he was in P11. A late accident between Sebastian Vettel and Mick Schumacher allowed him to insert himself into the top ten by the chequered flag and pick up his second point of the season. Could it get any better? Well, yes actually: Fernando Alonso being handed a penalty promoted Albon to P9 and doubled his joy. After this, what's the betting the entire team shows up sporting red hair for the next round in Spain?
