Kevin Magnussen (P16): 6/10
The Haas finally got some much needed upgrades this week - or at least, Kevin Magnussen's car did. It didn't seem to make all that much difference on Friday where both Haas were in the bottom five (Magnussen ahead of Mick Schumacher by a tenth or so) as they sought to get to grips with the new parts. Both drivers fared better in qualifying and survived the first cut, but Magnussen still only managed to finish in 13th, two spots ahead of Schumacher. He made a strong start to the race and was up to P10 but then tangled with Daniel Ricciardo and damaged his front wing in the process, landing him another black and orange flag obliging him to pit for repairs that dropped him to the back of the field. Haas boss Guenther Steiner was less than happy with race control's interjection, calling it 'overzealous' and plain wrong. It certainly terminated any hopes Magnussen might have had of squeezing into the points, and in the absence of any retirements during the afternoon except for Valtteri Bottas all he could manage to do by the chequered flag was to finish ahead of the two Williams cars and the compromised AlphaTauri of Yuki Tsunoda. Let's hope the upgrades are more effective in Belgium.
Daniel Ricciardo (P15): 6.5/10
Daniel Ricciardo briefly sparked into life on Friday, where McLaren proved unexpectedly strong in a hot and sunny Hungaroring. Ricciardo was eighth and fifth in the first day of practice, although he was overshadowed in FP2 by his team mate Lando Norris splitting the two Ferraris at the top of the timesheets. Although both drivers warned against expecting too much in qualifying, in fact they both did very well and made it through to the final round. Ricciardo found himself lining up for the start of the race from ninth place, just ahead of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, but when the lights went out he lost out to both Red Bulls and clashed with Kevin Magnussen, who'd enjoyed a flying launch. Ricciardo was fortunate to survive that encounter unscathed, which sent Magnussen to pit lane for repairs. Having started on the soft tyres, Ricciardo was one of the earliest drivers to make a scheduled visit to pit lane on lap 15. A middle stint on mediums worked out reasonably well for him and he was soon back inside the top ten running in eighth place just behind Norris. A second stop and a switch to the hard tyres undid all his good work. "The hard didn't work for us, I could just never really get it working," he said. "We simply had no grip. I tried to avoid contact [with Lance Stroll] but I couldn't and unfortunately hit him, spun him around and got a penalty and then that was it." Another day to forget for the Aussie in a season that's already seen far too many of them.
