Esteban Ocon (P10, 1 pt): 7.5/10
Esteban Ocon seemed a little out of sorts this weekend, so to come away from the Dutch GP with a championship point is probably better than he was expecting given all the recent upset and turmoil at Alpine. He ended Friday in P13 after a glitchy time in which he struggled to find a decent balance. He looked reluctant to go out in the wet conditions of FP3 which might have cost him when it came to qualifying, where he missed the first cut and ended up starting Sunday's race from 16th place. He didn't pit at the end of lap 1 when the rain started falling like so many of his peers, but came in next time by instead and ended up resuming in tenth place. He switched back to the soft tyres when the rain eased on lap 10 and put in a long stint, reaching sixth place before pitting again on lap 43. He was incensed to be given extreme wet tyres by the team on lap 61 when the rain returned: in a strict sense it was the right call (what followed was a deluge well beyond the capability of the inters to cope) but the team should have known that in such circumstances the race would be red-flagged and everyone get a chance for a 'free' tyre change before the restart. That left him in P11 but George Russell's puncture restored him into the points by the time the chequered flag came out.
Oscar Piastri (P9, 2 pts): 7.5/10
Oscar Piastri's destiny continues to be inexplicably intertwined with that of Daniel Ricciardo. He took Ricciardo's seat at McLaren at the end of 2022, and now he's unseated his fellow Aussie a second time by spinning off in second practice at Zandvoort, forcing Ricciardo to take avoiding action that put the AlphaTauri into the barrier - and break Ricciardo's hand. It didn't seem to put Piastri off his stride though, and he smoothly progressed to the final round of qualifying on Saturday. He would have been hoping for better than eighth on the grid considering that his team mate Lando Norris had just bagged a front row spot alongside Max Verstappen. Piastri was one of a small number of drivers who attempted to stay out on slicks when the rain fell at the start of Sunday's race, and his fortunes duly ebbed and flowed with the weather: down to P16, then back to P8 before finally pitting on lap 15 for new softs under the safety car for Logan Sargeant's accident. He stayed on that set until he locked up challenging Kevin Magnussen forcing him to pit earlier than planned on lap 46 by which time he was back up to sixth. A stint on mediums followed and then the rain returned in sufficient quantities to red flag the race and put everyone back on inters for a final six lap sprint. Piastri took the restart in tenth and benefitted from Norris making contact with George Russell to inherit ninth at the line.
