Esteban Ocon (P8, 4 pts): 7.5/10
It was a bit of a roller coaster ride for Alpine this weekend, albeit one with a somewhat bitter after taste for Esteban Ocon. A solid if unspectacular 13th in first practice was soon swept away by a more successful sixth in qualifying that saw him start the sprint just ahead of his team mate Fernando Alonso, giving the team the whip hand over their rivals McLaren. Unfortunately the sprint went horribly wrong for both drivers when they made contact, dropping them both out of the top ten. The floor of Ocon's A522 was badly damaged in the incident, and an oil leak barbecued the car with a flash fire in parc ferme. Ocon was lucky that the team was able to make repairs without incurring a pit lane start. Like Valtteri Bottas, he went long on his first stint on soft tyres and as a result was running in eighth place when the second safety car was scrambled. At the restart he managed to get ahead of Sebastian Vettel only to be ordered in no uncertain terms to yield position to Alonso who was on fresher tyres. It made sense, but Ocon was really not happy with the way it all played out. He'll be as happy to see Alonso leave the team as Alonso himself.
Sergio Perez (P7, 10 pts): 7/10
A strong start to the weekend saw Sergio Perez top the times in first practice by four thousandths of a second from Charles Leclerc, with Max Verstappen behind the Ferrari by the same amount. It's tight at the top! But the gaps lengthened in the variable wet conditions of qualifying and the luck didn't fall Perez' way when he was the slowest of the cars to complete a lap on slicks before the rain returned. He made progress in the sprint and was rewarded with fourth on the grid for the Grand Prix alongside Verstappen; but while Max tangled with Lewis Hamilton at the restart following an initial safety car, Perez kept it clean and settled in to second place behind George Russell. Pit stops notwithstanding that's where he remained until lap 44 when the recovering Hamilton flew past in no uncertain terms. The second safety car allowed Carlos Sainz to take fresh tyres and he used these to pass the waning Perez on lap 63, and Charles Leclerc and Fernando Alonso soon followed suit. With his race unravelling, the final straw was being told to allow Verstappen past to see if Max could do anything about catching the cars ahead in the final laps. He couldn't, but Max also didn't hand back the place at the end as had been agreed, leaving Perez fuming. Understandably.
