Nicholas Latifi (P18): 5/10
This wasn't a good week for a number of teams at the back of the grid. Maybe the high altitude of Mexico City took its toll? Haas, Aston Martin and Williams were all closely matched this weekend, but even with this levelling effect there was still one undoubted wooden spoon winner - and unfortunately that was Nicholas Latifi. He had the satisfaction of being 15th in first practice after finishing ahead of all five of the young drivers and rookies, and he was off the bottom step in FP2 thanks to the topsy-turvy nature of the Pirelli tyre testing programme. He was then quicker than Sebastian Vettel and Kevin Magnussen in a straight fight in final practice, but it counted for little when he was dead last in qualifying. Then again, his Williams team mate Alex Albon was only a couple of tenths and one place ahead of him as both comprehensively missed the cut at the end of Q1. There's little to be said about the race: starting from 18th after grid penalties for Magnussen and Lance Stroll, he immediately dropped to the back. While he had the satisfaction of getting ahead of Magnussen on lap 7 he was back at the back once more on lap 24 which is where he remained for the rest of the afternoon, the only driver in the field to be lapped twice by the leaders before the finish.
Kevin Magnussen (P17): 5.5/10
As mentioned above, it wasn't a good weekend for several of the backmarker teams, and Haas seemed particularly off the pace this weekend with the VF-22 seemingly suffering from acute altitude sickness. Kevin Magnussen missed out on FP1 after stepping aside for Pietro Fittipaldi who suffered a power unit issue during his short spell in the cockpit. Magnussen oddly skipped the chance to run regular tyres during the FP2 Pirelli tyres test and the end result was that he was dead last in final practice. Surprisingly he just scrapped through the first round of qualifying, although it was rather a Pyrrhic victory given that Friday's problems had forced the team to fit a new engine in the car, earning him a five place grid penalty that put him at the back for the start of the race. He began on medium tyres and jumped both Williams at the start, but couldn't hold on to those gains and was back at the back on lap 7. Staying out until lap 38 before pitting saw him peak in P17. After his pit stop he was ahead of Nicholas Latifi, but even a switch to soft tyres for the final stint did nothing for him.
