Fernando Alonso (P8, 4 pts): 8/10
The news that Sebastian Vettel was retiring at the end of the season threw an unwelcome spotlight on Fernando Alonso, who turned 41 this weekend making him the oldest driver on the grid by some margin. Not that you'd know it by looking at him or by his driving, which remains every bit as feisty as a teenager newly armed with a driving licence and the keys to his father's supercar. He was a fraction behind his Alpine team mate in FP1 but moved ahead in FP2 and enjoyed himself in the rain-hit final practice on Saturday. He was slightly miffed to qualify just behind Esteban Ocon, the Alpine pair locking out the third row of the grid with their sights on Lando Norris ahead as they sought to maintain their tiny margin over McLaren in the constructors championship. There was nothing they could go about Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez passing them in the opening laps, with the team putting them on a one-stop strategy that saw them both move to the hard compound around lap 22 after which they just had to hunker down and make it to the finish. Along the way Alonso had an interesting battle with Vettel, Alonso maybe checking out the car he'll be driving next year (although we didn't know that at the time). Alonso had better pace than Ocon by this point and was allowed past on lap 40, but he was unable to make any inroads into Norris' lead before the chequered flag.
Lando Norris (P7, 6 pts): 8/10
Lando Norris insisted he was happy with seventh this weekend - after all, it was 'best of the rest' behind the massed ranks of Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes drivers - but there was an understandable sense of disappointment mixed in there was well. "Of course we'd all wished for a bit more, but we just didn't have the pace today with the quicker cars behind," he acknowledged. Of the two McLaren drivers, Norris was consistently the stronger over the course of the weekend: fourth in FP1 and then an eye-catching second in FP2, he tried to downplay expectations for qualifying but then still (over-)delivered by ending up fourth on the grid, although he quipped that his friend George Russell's maiden pole had rather stolen all the glory. Norris went into the race with realistic expectations, knowing that the out-of-place Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez would come flying past at some point, and that proved to be the case as he found himself in P7 by the end of lap 13. It was little fault of his own, the MCL36 simply not having the pace to deal with the big boys just now. His attention turned to fending off the Alpines, and this Norris was comfortably able to do for the rest of the afternoon. Unfortunately with Daniel Ricciardo finishing out of the points, Norris' six points was the same as the total won by Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso combined meaning that Alpine go into the summer break still slightly ahead of McLaren in the constructors championship. It remains far too close to call between them, though - mainly thanks to Norris.
