Lewis Hamilton (P2, 18 pts): 8.5/10
Lewis Hamilton had been sounding so frustrated and forlorn about the performance of the Mercedes in 2023 than it's felt at times that the sun would never shine again for the seven-time world champion. Has he been laying it on a bit thick in the hopes of being able to produce just the sort of surprise we got from him in Melbourne? He was second quickest in first practice and while that was still half a second slower than Max Verstappen, it was half the margin we'd seen between the pair in Jeddah. He faded somewhat in FP2 and FP3 but then Mercedes blazed back in qualifying to take second and third on the grid. When George Russell used his front row spot to take the lead of the race, Hamilton opportunistically seized the chance to snatch second from Verstappen. One wonders what Hamilton would decided to do when the safety car came out if he'd had the choice, but it fell his way anyway and he picked up lead when Russell pitted only to then be thwarted by the subsequent red flag. He picked up the lead at the restart but had no chance of preventing Verstappen from getting through, and the rest of his afternoon was focused on tyre management and holding Fernando Alonso at arms length until the chequered flag, and his first podium of the season. Suddenly things are looking so much better now at Brackley for the knight of the racing realm.
Max Verstappen (Pole, P1, 25 pts): 9.5/10
Max Verstappen was really not happy to miss out on victory in Saudi Arabia, and appeared positively affronted by Sergio Perez having the temerity not to meekly pull over by the side of the road and let him catch up and pass. Verstappen's determination not to be second again this weekend was so clear that you wouldn't have been surprised to hear April Fools rumours that he'd been spotted lurking in the Red Bull garage on Friday night wielding a wrench around the back of Perez' car prior to final practice and qualifying. While the Mexican's weekend went off the rails on Saturday, Verstappen was looking serene throughout with the top time in FP1 and FP3, and then commanding all three rounds of qualifying to secure pole position albeit by only 0.236s from Mercedes' George Russell - a tighter margin than many had predicted. Russell continued to be the fly in the ointment on Sunday when he seized the lead at the start of the race (and Lewis Hamilton followed through to snatch second) but these were temporary glitches as far as Verstappen was concerned. He was back in the lead on lap 12 and already out of DRS range. There was a slight moment of carelessness when he stayed off the road in the closing stages, but that sort of thing is no big deal when you have an 11s lead. The biggest worry was when Kevin Magnussen's accident meant another restart - the starts not being Verstappen's forté today - but on this occasion he aced his final exam and pulled away from the mayhem behind him to confirm his 37th F1 career victory.
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