Mick Schumacher (P6, 12 pts): 8.5/10
After his first 30 Grand Prix starts, with two huge crashes in 2022 but still no championship points to his name, people were wondering whether Mick Schumacher was all name and too little talent. Two races later and he's been in the points back-to-back and is now above the likes of Yuki Tsunoda, Zhou Guanyu and Alex Albon in the driver standings. More importantly, Schumacher was genuinely impressive in Austria with what was unquestionably his best drive in Formula 1 to date. He progressed through to the final round of qualifying as if born to it, putting him ahead of Lewis Hamilton for the sprint start. It was a spellbinding battle between the sophomore driver and seven-time champion, and Schumacher very nearly succeeded in staying ahead to the finish. He certainly took the heat off Kevin Magnussen just ahead of them. In the race, Schumacher had his revenge, passing the Mercedes on lap 4 and made it last until the pit stops started. That's going to look very good on his calling card in future! His own service dropped him to P14 and it took a while to recover, but on lap 32 he managed to get past Magnussen for sixth place. While there was still work to be done in the second half, he kept it together and thoroughly deserved to be named Driver of the Day in the official F1 viewers' poll. Quite the turnaround for young Mick who is proving that he has enough talent that the name doesn't matter after all.
Esteban Ocon (P5, 13 pts): 8/10
Esteban Ocon's 100th Grand Prix start started with a lacklustre first practice but soon picked up with a strong showing in qualifying that saw him through to the final round and on the sprint grid in fifth place. In the sprint race he only lost out to Sergio Perez, the much faster Red Bull having started out of position after having his key Q2 lap time belatedly deleted for exceeding track limits. After that it was relatively simple for the Frenchman who simply had to weather the ups and downs of the pit stop cycles. His principle battle was with the two Mercedes drivers: Russell dropped behind as the result of a penalty for hitting Perez, but his place was taken up by Lewis Hamilton. Russell himself eventually recovered on lap 62 after the Virtual Safety Car for Sainz' retirement. Ocon might have struggled to finish ahead of his team mate who had started from the back, but a loose wheel on Fernando Alonso's car resolved any such threat and Ocon just had to keep a watchful eye on Mick Schumacher, all the way to his highest finish since the 2021 Saudi Arabian GP.
