Kevin Magnussen (P10, 1 pt): 8/10
A point for Haas! Break out the champagne! It's the first for the Dane since the Miami GP, and was arguably his best weekend performance of the 2023 season to date. He finished Friday practice in ninth place and flirted with the top ten again in FP3, but we were still surprised to see him snatch sixth place on the grid after both he and team mate Nico Hulkenberg made it through to the final round of qualifying on Saturday evening. He lost out to Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon at the start of the race (and subsequently Max Verstappen on lap 6) but he and Hulkenberg continued to run in the top ten until pitting under the safety car. Unfortunately it looked like his chances of points were gone when a brake problem saw him go off at turn 2 on lap 36 costing him six places at a stroke. With nothing to lose he pitted under the Virtual Safety Car on lap 43 and took on a set of softs, and that proved enough to give him the pace he needed to recover all those lost positions by the finish line - with a little help from George Russell's last lap accident.
Liam Lawson (P9, 2 pts): 8.5/10
AlphaTauri might have a genuine problem on its hands, which goes by the name of Liam Lawson. He's only been in the car since Zandvoort, and yet is already performing like a seasoned veteran. We were impressed enough to see him make it through to the final round of qualifying in only his third F1 weekend - and to do so by making Max Verstappen miss the cut, no less. But to go on from that milestone to pick up his first championship points as well is quite remarkable. His team mate Yuki Tsunoda is yet to beat him, so how can the team justify dropping the talented Kiwi back to the substitute bench when Daniel Ricciardo's hand is healed? The only thing you can say about Lawson is that he's not exactly an exciting driver: he comes in, does the job, takes the success and moves on. Maybe that's what AlphaTauri need right now?
