Carlos Sainz (P6, 8 pts): 7/10
Equipped with a brand new engine for the second race - which is worryingly early in the season for such replacements - Carlos Sainz started well enough in fifth place in first practice but then slipped backwards in FP2 and FP3 with the team reportedly turning down the power, presumably over concerns about reliability. Although there were no problems making it into the final round of qualifying, he will not have been happy to be outperformed by Fernando Alonso and George Russell. The SF-23 was still looking off-colour on Sunday when it fell early victim to Aston Martin's Lance Stroll when the lights went out. Even though Sainz began on the medium tyres and Charles Leclerc had started on the softs, it was the Spaniard who pitted first of the pair for the hard compound. When the race resumed after a safety car, Sainz found himself under attack from Lewis Hamilton who now had the advantage of a new set of softs. The Mercedes - not without its own troubles in 2023 - made the Ferrari look like a carthorse. After that Sainz just focused on getting to the finish with Leclerc immediately behind him, such was the extent of their limited ambition in Jeddah.
Lewis Hamilton (P5, 10 pts): 8/10
The rumours are growing that Lewis Hamilton has one eye on looking for an escape route out of Mercedes, such is his unhappiness with the new car. Maybe the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix will have assuaged his concerns a bit, at least for now, because the Silver Arrow was arguably the second best car behind Red Bull in Jeddah, on the same level as Aston Martin. It hadn't looked that way on Friday night when Hamilton ended up outside the top ten, and he was clearly unhappy to finish qualifying in P8 and thoroughly eclipsed by team mate George Russell who was in fifth. But he showed all his old skill no Sunday when he was the only driver in the top ten to start on the hard tyres, which made it difficult to defend against everyone else on the mediums with greater grip. He certainly knew better than to fight a lost cause when Max Verstappen came calling. The early safety car was probably not the best timing for him as it meant he would have to run the rest of the race - 32 laps - on the mediums but he put the new tyres to immediate good use with a pass on Carlos Sainz at the restart. Surprisingly he didn't appeal to the Mercedes pit wall for team orders to allow him to pass George Russell; instead he accepted that his primary task was to manage his tyres and bring the car home in fifth, which he proceeded to do.
