George Russell (P8, 4 pts): 7.5/10
Losing his 'Mr Consistency' card in Singapore seems to have punctured George Russell's balloon to a degree, although his big problem this week was the slow pit stop he faced early in the race. He had been left waiting for Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton to clear the pit box so he could get his own intermediates fitted. "The worst decision we've made," he chided after the double-stacking backfire which dropped him from seventh to 14th on lap 8. It took him a long time to navigate his way past Yuki Tsunoda before finally doing so at the Esses - "That was a nice move!" he crowed - after which he soon picked off Lando Norris and Nicholas Latifi. He was promoted to seventh when Fernando Alonso made a late pit stop, but the Alpine's fresh tyres gave him the speed to come roaring off and pick off the Briton on the final lap. Eighth will be a disappointment for Russell after topping the times in the wet FP2, but really it was just not a great weekend for Mercedes as a whole.
Fernando Alonso (P7, 6 pts): 8.5/10
Thwarted last time out by an engine failure, Fernando Alonso was determined to be back up to speed in Suzuka - and sure enough, he was fastest of anyone in the wet conditions of FP1. But he was also speedy when things dried up on Saturday where he was fourth in final practice, heading into qualifying optimistic of putting the Alpine onto the second row of the grid. In the end the massed ranks of Red Bulls and Ferraris were too much to overcome, and Alonso even ended up slower than current Alpine team mate Esteban Ocon and former McLaren team mate Lewis Hamilton, leaving him starting from P7. He waited until lap 8 to pit for inters, which allowed Sebastian Vettel (who had been the first to stop on lap 5) to jump into the gap between himself and Hamilton. Stuck in place, and with George Russell threatening from behind, Alonso made a late second stop with six laps to go; while it cost him two spots at the time, he recovered them before the chequered flag. "A fun but very chaotic race today," he said. "I'm glad we managed to put on a show in the end for the fans. We scored some good points and I think we could have scored even more."
