Sergio Perez (P2, 18 pts): 8/10
Coming off the back of his wonderful win in a wet Singapore, we perhaps expected too much of Sergio Perez in similar conditions this weekend. It's not that he had a bad weekend by any means, just a somewhat unremarkable one by his own high standards. He was within half a tenth of his Red Bull team mate Max Verstappen at the end of Friday's two wet practice sessions, but slipped back when it turned dry on Saturday. Although he topped the second round of qualifying, that was to do with lucky timing and the fact that Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz all decided not to make a second run. All three beat him in the final round leaving him lining up on the grid in fourth place on Sunday. He got the jump on Sainz at the start with the Ferrari then aquaplaning off, leaving him to focus on attacking Leclerc. He very nearly pulled it off but the Monegasque held firm - until the Ferrari was pressured into a mistake on the final lap that resulted in a post-race penalty. Perez might not have quite managed to pull if off on the track, but he came away as part of Red Bull's fifth one-two of the season all the same.
Max Verstappen (Pole, P1, 25 pts): 10/10
It would be possible to nitpick Max Verstappen's performance this week and deduct a half point here or there, but the truth is that he deserved a perfect ten for his performance in Japan given that he clinched a second consecutive world championship. Stepping over the unrepresentative wet FP1 and FP2, he was quickest in final practice and then beat Charles Leclerc to pole on Saturday, although the gap at the top was closer than anyone might have been expecting. While he had a sluggish start to the race when the lights went out first time, the way he hung in through turns 1 and 2 to seize the lead back from Leclerc was sheer brilliance. After that he was clearly in a class of his own. There might have been a lucky couple of breaks - Leclerc's post-race penalty dropping him to third; clumsy wording in the rules meaning that full points were awarded rather than half which had been the intention - but if the title hadn't been decided here then it would have happened anyway at Austin. Two weeks makes little difference, and there's no denying that Verstappen seized the day - and the season - and fully deserves all the spoils.
