Lando Norris (P6, 8 pts): 7.5/10
It's been all doom and gloom at Woking so far in 2023, and there may have been worries that McLaren could go the whole year without a point leaving them prime contenders for the wooden spoon (similar to the case just six short years ago). And yet in one weekend, the team has leapt from last place to fifth in the constructors standings thanks to a double points finish for both drivers, led by Lando Norris wringing every last bit of pace and performance from the MCL60 in Melbourne. Luck played a part of course, but Norris had been P7 and P8 in Friday's practice sessions. He then had limited running and was slowest in FP3 resulting in a disappointing qualifying session in which he pushed the card too hard, missing out on the final round and having to settle for 13th on the grid. "I was too much on the limit, I didn't drive like I know how to do," he lamented. But in the race he gained two places at the start and took his first pit stop under the red flag rather than the initial safety car; after the restart he took care of Yuki Tsunoda, and later in the race was able to pass Nico Hulkenberg on lap 50. Pierre Gasly's accident at the penultimate restart and Carlos Sainz' post-race penalty rewarded him with an entirely unexpected sixth place and his first points of the year. "A crazy, crazy race - but we stayed in there when it mattered."
Sergio Perez (P5, Fastest lap, 11 pts): 7.5/10
Coming off the back of a hugely well-deserved win in Saudi Arabia, this is not the sequel that Sergio Perez would have wanted to see. You could almost say that the Mexican was cursed this weekend. Half a second off Max Verstappen's pace in first practice and down to P7 in the second session, he then suffered a brake balance issue that left him all over the place on Saturday and resulted in his locking up and running off, exiting qualifying without even setting a time. The team decided to track down the problem overnight at the cost of incurring a pit lane start to the race, but it was a tentative start on Sunday for Perez and he didn't make up as many places as he might have hoped before the first red flag. While the rest of the day might not have been quite the 'hot knife through butter' example set by Verstappen in Jeddah two weeks earlier, Perez did finally settle in and start to trust the RB19 again, making his way up nicely and culminating with a pass on Nico Hulkenberg on lap 43. The last but one restart eliminated Esteban Ocon and penalised Carlos Sainz leaving Perez in fifth. In the circumstances it's a perfectly solid result, but he's now 15 points behind Verstappen in the drivers championship despite scooping the point for the fastest lap in Melbourne. What are the chances that team orders will now be brought into effect at Red Bull for Baku?
