Zhou Guanyu (P16): 6/10
If ever the phrase 'from hero to zero' had been invented for a specific reason, then it's for Zhou Guanyu's Hungarian Grand Prix. His performance in getting the Alfa Romeo through to the final round of qualifying on Saturday was remarkable and worthy in its own right of a ten out of ten, a real breakthrough for both driver and team. But on Sunday, nothing went right for the Chinese star. A disastrous launch from the grid left him getting in everyone's way triggering a multi-car shunt that put both Alpines out on the first lap, for which he was handed a five second penalty. His race now effectively in as pieces as the crumpled Alpines were, he slogged away to a deeply disappointing DRS train. If the ratings were for the race, we'd be looking at a three; average them out and you get the mark we've given for the weekend as a whole. Hopefully Belgium will be better for him.
Yuki Tsunoda (P15): 5.5/10
The spotlight this weekend might have been on his new AlphaTauri team mate Daniel Ricciardo, but Yuki Tsunoda will have been equally aware that he too was caught in the media glare. If he's to ensure he keeps his seat under new management in 2024, his first and most important task is to perform better than the returning Aussie: and unfortunately, he didn't in Hungary. It started promisingly enough when he was fourth in FP2, but he was slowest in final practice and then missed the first cut in qualifying while Ricciardo successfully made it through to the first round. Tsunoda benefitted from the first lap incidents which caught up Ricciardo who dropped right to the back; but having started on soft tyres, a very early pit stop on lap 9 dropped Tsunoda to the back. A more productive middle stint on hard tyres saw him flirting with the top ten but a final run on mediums was frustrated by being caught up in a DRS train, and by the line he was two places behind Ricciardo again. Mission very much not accomplished for the Japanese driver this week; better luck in Belgium, Yuki.
