Pierre Gasly (S P9, GP P12): 6.5/10
A strong qualifying on Friday saw Pierre Gasly into the top ten and ahead of his Alpine team mate Esteban Ocon on Sunday's grid. Unfortunately he missed out on SQ3 in the Sprint Showdown, and his selection of soft tyres for the Sprint left him vulnerable to being picked off by the likes of Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton in the second half of the race, meaning he narrowly missed the points. He still held high expectations for the Grand Prix, but continually breached track limits "by a few centimetres" to such a degree that he amassed multiple penalties during the race, compromising any hopes of staying in the top ten. He said afterwards that a small problem with energy management meant he had ended up compensating by taking too many risks.
Lance Stroll (S P15, GP P11): 4.5/10
Okay. Deep breath. Count to ten. In, and out. Think happy thoughts. Ready to go? Unfortunately for Lance Stroll, the defining image of his Qatar Grand Prix will be the footage of him punching a partition wall and shoving an Aston Martin team member before giving the most terse interview in recent history to F1 TV. If any other driver had behaved in that way on top of a run of really poor performances then it's doubtful that he would still be in the race seat in Austin, but this is Lawrence Stroll's son we're talking about. It all spoke to the pressure on the Canadian's shoulders, and in that context he actually did rather well to pull himself together and battle his way through the field rather well to finish on the cusp of the points on Sunday despite a track limits penalty that angered him. (Deep breath. Happy thoughts, Lance. Keep counting.) It all feels like a genuine tipping point for Stroll's F1 career.
