Lewis Hamilton (P6, 8 pts): 8/10
A Mercedes 1-2 in the first practice session on Friday (Lewis Hamilton just two tenths off the pace of George Russell) will have sent spirits soaring at Brackley. But Hamilton was just seventh in the afternoon (and Russell no where in 15th), and he dropped to 13th in final practice which proved an eerily accurate prediction for his qualifying position. In both cases he was slower than Russell. In the race, a soft-shod Russell was able to make early gains on Kevin Magnussen and Pierre Gasly but Hamilton was on the hard tyres and stuck in traffic from which it proved difficult to break free, unable to pass the Williams of Alex Albon until lap 14. It finally broke the logjam and he was up to seventh by made his own pit stop on lap 37 which briefly dropped him out of the points. Passes on Valtteri Bottas, Kevin Magnussen, Pierre Gasly and Charles Leclerc before the chequered flag brightened his day considerably. Sixth might not be exactly what he's aiming for right now, but it's a lot better than it might have been this week.
Carlos Sainz (P5, 10 pts): 7/10
It was not a great weekend for Ferrari this week, as we can clearly see from the performance of Carlos Sainz. Unlike his Ferrari team mate, the Spaniard managed not to have any serious crashes this weekend. While not quite a match for Charles Leclerc in terms of raw speed, he was consistently in the top five throughout practice which is pretty serviceable. He continued that form into qualifying and was third fastest in Q3 by the time that Leclerc triggered a red flag and an early stop to the proceedings. But as we've come to see all too often this season, the SF-23 didn't have anything like the race pace of its rivals, especially Max Verstappen who dismissed Sainz on lap 14 as he recovered from his own compromised qualifying. Having started on the medium tyres, Sainz pitted on lap 18 for a set of the hards and was soon able to take care of Nico Hulkenberg and Lewis Hamilton. Fernando Alonso pitted on lap 24 and came out right behind the Ferrari, but Sainz put up curiously little fight and allowed the Aston to get ahead again just a couple of laps later. He then jousted back and forth with Esteban Ocon over fourth before both were put in their place by George Russell in the suddenly energetic Mercedes on lap 37. After that it was a straightforward run to the line for Sainz who had enough in hand over Hamilton, Leclerc, Gasly and Ocon to make a careless five second penalty for speeding on pit lane entirely irrelevant.
