Oscar Piastri (P8, 4 pts): 7.5/10
This week's race will have done wonders for the spirits of all at Woking, because no one expected McLaren to emerge from the doom and gloom of the first two rounds of the season with a double points finish for their drivers in Melbourne. It makes Oscar Piastri the first of this year's rookie runners to secure his maiden championship points. But we have to say there was an awful lot of luck involved, and you wouldn't have confidently predicted this outcome for Piastri at his home race even half an hour before the finish. He wasn't in the top ten in any of the practice sessions and missed the first cut at the end of Q1 to start the race from P16; but he got a good start and swiftly made up three places, and was further boosted by the timing of the first safety car/red flag to make his pit stop. That put him achingly close to the points - he was P10 after George Russell's retirement - but Esteban Ocon soon got passed him and from lap 28 he was stuck behind the Alpine in 11th. Somehow he dodged the chaos of the penultimate restart and emerged blinking from the carnage in ninth place (later eighth with Carlos Sainz' penalty) and he held on to that for dear life when the safety car chaperoned them all to the chequered flag.
Nico Hulkenberg (P7, 6 pts): 8/10
The team's choice of the veteran Nico Hulkenberg to replace Mick Schumacher this season might have appeared questionable at the time, but Guenther Steiner's decision is proving increasingly justified with another strong performance from the German driver this weekend. Consistently ahead of team mate Kevin Magnussen throughout practice and within touching distance of the top ten, he more than delivered in qualifying when he turned heads by going fifth fastest in Q2 to easily make it through to the final round. A lack of remaining soft compound tyres meant he had to settle for P10 on the grid, but he was helped out by pitting under the first red flag and took the restart in sixth. Inevitably there was little he could do to hold back the Mercedes of George Russell, but he soon settled into seventh place for the middle stint of the race before the car started to wane and he succumbed to both Sergio Perez (on lap 43) and Lando Norris (on lap 50). He got both spots back thanks to Pierre Gasly's accident on the penultimate restart and Carlos Sainz' post-race penalty to bag six points for the squad, more than repaying their faith in recruiting him back to active duty this season.
