Alexander Albon (P14): 7/10
Alex Albon had an unsettling start to this weekend when he crashed into the barrier at Sainte Devote during first practice, causing so much damage to the FW45 that the Williams mechanics were still hard at work undertaking repairs when the rest of the cars headed out for the second session. Albon used the opportunity to make plenty of overnight set-up changes, and while they didn't show much promise in final practice (he was P18, even slower than his team mate Logan Sargeant) they bore fruit in qualifying where he was third fastest at the end of the first round. Eventually settling for 13th on the grid, he was very slow at the start, and after repelling a kamikaze strike from Lance Stroll he was soon compressing the field behind him, contributing to a first lap incident between Sargeant and Nico Hulkenberg. By lap 17, Valtteri Bottas had had enough of waiting and forced his way through, and in any case Albon was struggling with tyre degradation and needed to pit to exchange his mediums for hard tyres, putting him at the back. He had to pit again on lap 53 for inters when the rain started, and the timing and ensuing mayhem helped him pick up a few spots before settling in behind Zhou Guanyu for the final run to the chequered flag.
Zhou Guanyu (P13): 6.5/10
It was a quiet weekend for Zhou Guanyu, neither the best or times nor the worst for the Chinese sophomore who just quietly got on with things, as he is so often wont to do. His practice performances (P19, P13, P16) suggested it would be touch and go whether he would survive the first cut in qualifying, and in the end a lack of grip in the Alfa Romeo meant that he fell well short of the mark and joined Sergio Perez on the back row of the grid for the start of Sunday's race. With little to lose, he mirrored the Red Bull's strategy of pitting at the end of the first lap to move from soft to hard compound tyres, but it gained him little. By the midpoint of the race he had gained a net two positions from moving ahead of the Williams drivers, but the arrival of rain and the quick decision to pit again for inters on lap 52 while others were still thinking the showers would surely die away helped him pick up three more spots, and he was handed 13th when Yuki Tsunoda's brake problems really kicked in when the track became soaked leaving Zhou crossing the line in 13th place. While not perhaps a result that will live long in the memory, it's worth pointing out that he gained six places on the day - the most of anyone, a very respectable achievement for anyone at Monaco.
