Lewis Hamilton (SP7, P6, 10 pts): 7.5/10
Much has been said of how Lewis Hamilton is struggling to match the pace of his Mercedes team mate George Russell this season, but the seven time world champion did that and more this weekend and acquitted himself well as a whole, even if it came without another podium after his success last time out in Melbourne. After a subdued practice session he scored a respectable P5 in qualifying for Grand Prix while Russell stuttered and missed the cut for the final round. Hamilton came off second best to Russell in the showdown and lost out to Fernando Alonso when the race resumed after a safety car. On Sunday, it was an early pit stop just before another safety car deployment that compromised Hamilton's race and left him down as low as P11. However he managed to fight back, and rather pleasingly dispatched Russell on his way back up to sixth, only to find further progress blocked by Carlos Sainz. Try as he might, Hamilton could find no way past the Ferrari before the chequered flag.
Carlos Sainz (SP5, P5, 14 pts): 7/10
Carlos Sainz himself admitted that he was lacking confidence in the SF-23 this week, and to be honest it showed. He just didn't have necessary touch and feel to send the car right to the edge without scuffing his Pirelli tyres against the too-close walls of Baku's tight and tricky street circuit. It meant he was consistently a few fractions off the pace of his team mate not to mention that of the two Red Bulls. He also lost out to George Russell when it came to the sprint showdown, and the Mercedes man duly pipped him to fourth place in the Saturday short race. Russell wasn't a factor on Sunday, and this time it was Fernando Alonso who got the jump on Sainz and walked off with fourth. Sainz would have been expecting to do better this weekend and will be disappointed not to have been in the same ball park as Charles Leclerc; hopefully he'll be in better form in Miami next week.
