Sergio Perez (P2, 18 pts): 9/10
Surprised by the way that Sergio Perez recovered from an early issue to race his way back into contention and nearly win the race? Old news. That's exactly what he did in Sakhir in 2020 when his race appeared to be over at the start, only for him to end up clinching his maiden F1 victory. It was that remarkable feat that secured his surprise promotion from Racing Point to Red Bull, and on Sunday he demonstrated that it had been no fluke. Although he kept clear of the initial mayhem surrounding Zhou Guanyu, the restart saw him damage his front wing in a clash with Charles Leclerc that forced him to pit for a replacement and dumped him to the back of the order. After that the only thing he could do was use his legendary 'tyre whisperer' skills to stay out as long as possible in the hope that something would come up. And lo and behold, it did - in the form of a safety car following Esteban Ocon's retirement on lap 39, which allowed him to make his second stop after a 34 lap stint to switch to softs for the short final stint. It set up a three-way battle with Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton that is sure to feature on everyone's list of racing highlights in 2022, from which Perez emerged triumphant. By this time Carlos Sainz was too far down the road to catch, but second place was still extraordinarily impressive after all that.
©Ferrari
Carlos Sainz (Pole, P1, 25 pts): 9.5/10
Carlos Sainz might have got lucky in a number of ways this weekend, but there isn't a person in the paddock that begrudges the 27-year-old Spaniard his maiden Formula 1 race win, 150 starts after he made his debut on the grid in Australia for Toro Rosso. Surprisingly, even though he had been quickest on Friday and then snatched pole position (also a career first) away from Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc in wet conditions on Saturday, there had still been no real sense of expectation from anyone that this was going to be his breakthrough performance. Obviously Verstappen would triumph in the end, because that's the emerging series arc of this season's Drive To Survive, sorry, of this year's Formula 1 world championship. And sure enough, Verstappen did pass Sainz, not just once but twice: at the initial start when Sainz was powerless to repel the soft-shod Red Bull into turn 1; and then again, after Sainz successfully fought tooth and claw to keep the lead after the restart, when an error by the Ferrari driver handed it to Verstappen on a plate ten laps in. When Verstappen dropped out of contention with debris damage, Sainz found himself under pressure from the faster Leclerc and it seemed the team as going to order him to take second seat again. But Ferrari can always be relied upon to trip over their shoelaces: pitting Sainz for softs while keeping Leclerc out on older hard tyres put the Monegasque in an indefensible position. Ordering Sainz to hold back from Leclerc at the final restart was just silly (as proved by the way Leclerc succumbed to Perez and Hamilton in the final laps). Sainz might get a dressing down from the team management for calmly but firmly refusing to follow orders, but it was that exact moment Sainz proved he deserved to be a Grand Prix winner.
