Zhou Guanyu (P10, 1 pt): 7.5/10
We keep saying it, Zhou Guanyu is making a very decent fist of his rookie season in Formula 1 and is proving far more consistent and reliable than anyone would have had any right to expect at this point in his career. Despite this being his first outing in Monza in F1 equipment, he finished Friday practice just ahead of the vastly more experienced Valtteri Bottas. Both men made it into the second round of qualifying on Saturday, but while Bottas was quicker in Q2 he also had a 15-place grid penalty to serve while Zhou was one of the rare lucky drivers to come into the weekend with a clean slate, promoting him up to ninth on the grid. Zhou did well to maintain this in the opening laps until Carlos Sainz blasted past on lap 8, but he wasn't able to do anything about dispatching first timer Nyck de Vries who was running right ahead of him. The status quo continued even after they pitted at almost the same time, with Zhou unable to do anything about the Williams despite his very best efforts. At the same time he did make sure not to offer up any opportunities to Esteban Ocon for the next 33 laps until the safety car and chequered flag. He might have been frustrated, but it sure beats the experience of being flipped onto your head on the first lap!
Nyck de Vries (P9, 2 pts): 9/10
What a weird and wonderful weekend Nyck de Vries ended up having. He would have been delighted just to have the chance to tackle another FP1 session, this time for Aston Martin - his first was with Williams in Spain, and then for Mercedes in France. He gets around, does our Nyck. Job done, he was relaxing in the Paddock Club enjoying a nice cappuccino on Saturday morning when the phone rang with instructions to the effect of 'get over here now. Right now. Or sooner!" and less than an hour later he was suiting up for the start of FP3 replacing the unwell Alex Albon. Given the circumstances, P14 in that session (just behind regular Williams driver Nicholas Latifi) was a commendable showing, but obviously it would be unfair to expect him to make the cut at the end of the first round of qualifying like Albon probably would have done. Except that's just what he did do, albeit by just two hundredths of a second on Latifi after his fastest lap of Q1 was deleted for exceeding track limits. It translated to P8 on the grid on Sunday and ALbon must have been watching from his hospital bed thinking, "if only that was me, I could have earned the team some points on Sunday!" Obviously that was a ridiculous expectation to place on de Vries in his maiden outing, even if he is a former Formula E world champion. Fast forward 24 hours and after a tough but well-handled race, de Vries really did come away from Monza with his first two championship points to call his own. There was a brief scare afterwards when the stewards wanted a word about some 'erratic' driving (due to unfamiliarity with the FW44's systems) but it seemed even the cynical powers-that-be couldn't bring themselves to rain on the rookie's fairytale parade. Instead, they let him off with a reprimand so that he could get back to the Williams garage for some well deserved riotous celebrations. Did the Dutch driver just secure himself a seat in F1 for 2023?
