Pierre Gasly (P12): 7/10
Pierre Gasly was tenth on Friday and sixth after the end of final practice on Saturday, signalling that he would be a likely contender to make it into the final top ten round of qualifying later in the day. In the end he was left fuming after being baulked by Carlos Sainz, going as far as to say that the Ferrari driver should be banned for reckless driving. Sainz' response to that was along the lines of "Calm down, dear". Unfortunately it did all rather ruin Gasly's chances for a strong race, which saw him start from 15th place after penalties were applied to Lance Stroll and Yuki Tsunoda. Gasly gained two more places on the first lap of the race when he got past Kevin Magnussen and Valtteri Bottas, the Alpine having been unique in starting the race on the soft tyres, but all his best efforts were undone by the need to stop for a set of the hard compound on lap 10 - just before George Russell's accident triggered a safety car that allowed the cars ahead to make a 'free' stop. It left Gasly stuck at the back with a train of DRS-enabled cars stacked up ahead of him. There wasn't much he could do from there and his only notable success was passing Nico Hulkenberg on lap 43 when the Haas was struggling with tyre degradation. After that he trailed Oscar Piastri to the finish in P13, which was upgraded to 12th when Lando Norris' penalty for "unsportsmanlike conduct" kicked in after the finish.
Oscar Piastri (P11): 7/10
Every Formula 1 driver has their personal landmarks: their first race; their first championship point; their first proper accident. The latter is the point that Oscar Piastri arrived at this weekend, when he lost the rear of the McLaren coming out of turn 7 in the final round of qualifying. It sent the car into a heavy impact with the barrier, triggering a red flag that effectively sealed the grid for Sunday's race. "My first big mistake of the year," he lamented. Fortunately Piastri himself was unhurt and the mechanics were soon able to buff out the dents in the MCL60's paperwork (oh, and the rest - it was quite a crumpled car they got to work on overnight). Fortunately Piastri had already set a time in Q3 enabling him to start the race from from eighth, and the clear side of the grid allowed him to make an early pass on his team mate Lando Norris. Both pitted under the safety car for George Russell's accident, but Norris got the upper hand at the restart and Piastri ended up falling in behind him until the second round of stops. They didn't work out so well for Piastri, dropping him to 13th. Russell's eventual retirement and Norris' post race penalty handed the young Aussie two places in the final classification, but it was still one spot short of the points.
