George Russell (Lap 18, Power unit): 9/10
"We did everything right this weekend," George Russell said after the end of the Australian Grand Prix. And from our ratings, you can see we pretty much agreed with that self-assessment. The only thing he didn't do was finish the race, and that was not his fault in the slightest: when the back of your car is on fire, the only sane response is to stop and get out as fast as possible. Before that he'd done exceptionally well in qualifying to put himself on to the front row of the grid on Sunday, and then did something that people thought would be impossible for anyone to achieve this year - he beat Max Verstappen into the first corner! Unfortunately he lost the lead when Mercedes (over)reacted to the first safety car and brought him in for a pit stop, only for that yellow flag to then turn red which sabotaged the strategy. He reacted maturely and without blaming anyone, and was busy fighting back when the fire started. Unfortunate; but really, as Russell himself put it, he himself really did do everything right this weekend.
Kevin Magnussen (P17, Lap 53, Spin): 5.5/10
Not a great weekend for Kevin Magnussen, who was stuck in the bottom two in both of Friday's practice sessions and only managed to climb to the dizzying heights of P17 in FP3. It was a surprise to see him rise to the occasion in qualifying and make the first cut at the end of Q1, and went on to run the first stint in 12th place until unfortunate timing with his pit stop under the first safety car before the red flag was declared. Despite getting stuck in a DRS train he'd managed to claw his way back to P12 by lap 53 when he ran wide and contact deflated his right rear tyre - and his hopes of points. "I brushed the wall at the exit of Turn 2 and the rim broke, the tyre came off and I had to stop. I didn't even feel it so it definitely wasn't something that felt big in the car, but it was enough to crack the rim and take the tyre off. It's unfortunate."
