George Russell (SP4, P8, Fastest lap, 10 pts): 6.5/10
It wasn't exactly a terrible weekend for George Russell, but there were nonetheless some uncharacteristic slips and mistakes for the young Briton that meant he was firmly the number two driver at Mercedes in Baku. He was unusually far down the timesheets at the end of practice (in 17th) and things did not go well for him in qualifying, in which he missed the final cut and had to settle for a grid position out of the top ten for the Grand Prix. He had his best spell on Saturday where he was an impressive fourth in the showdown ahead of Carlos Sainz, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton. But on Sunday, that poor performance in qualifying came back to bite him: although he gained two places at the start and picked up more spots under the safety car, he had a truly terrible restart which left him apologising to the team over the pit wall radio. It locked him into eighth place behind Hamilton and Lance Stroll, but he did have a window of opportunity at the end to pit for soft tyres and pick up a bonus point for setting the fastest lap. Every little helps, right?
Lance Stroll (SP8, P7, 7 pts): 7/10
It would be easy to be sniffy about Lance Stroll's performance this weekend, but in our view that would be unfair. Aston Martin as a whole was struggling on Friday and Saturday, and Stroll's qualifying performance was definitely compromised by the team's intermittent DRS issues on both cars which left Ocon down on power when he really needed every last bit of speed on tap. What was impressive was how the team worked together to overcome the problems, with an unusually considerate and solicitous Fernando Alonso offering his team mate a tow and set-up suggestions. It meant they both made the final round of both the showdown and qualifying, putting them in a good position for the two races. Stroll finished just behind Lewis Hamilton in both races (P8 and P7 on Saturday and Sunday respectively) despite clouting the wall at turn 5 at one point, and being lucky to escape without significant damage. All in all, a perfectly decent and tidy weekend for Stroll albeit once again in the shadow of the mighty Alonso.
