Sergio Perez (S DNF, GP P10, 1 pt): 4.5/10
Technically, Sergio Perez came into the weekend as the only driver still in contention to catch his Red Bull team mate Max Verstappen in the drivers championship. It was always unlikely to happen of course, but it would have been nice if the Mexican had at least put up a fight if only for pride and entertainment's sake. Instead it was another major disappointment from Perez who looks seriously deflated at this stage of the season. He missed the final cut in qualifying, claimed a serviceable P8 in the Sprint Showdown, but then got caught up in a three-way incident with Esteban Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg that he should have had the sense to avoid. The damage sustained left him starting the Grand Prix from pit lane. While he battled his way to a single point, none of it mattered any more in terms of the championship.
Zhou Guanyu (S P14, GP P9, 2 pts): 7/10
Wait a minute, what's happening at Hinwil? The Alfa Romeo marque has been looking on an inexorable descent glide path out of F1 for months now, but this weekend the team suddenly perked up and delivered a double points finish for the first time this season. It's Zhou Guanyu's first top ten finish since the Spanish GP, and we didn't see it coming - especially not after his was slowest in Friday's qualifying session. Even though he did slightly better in the Sprint Showdown he was still second from bottom among the drivers to finish the Sprint. And yet in the Grand Prix his decision to go for an extended initial run on mediums briefly shot him up to fourth place. Two runs on hard tyres saw him still up to sixth but the limit on the number of laps a set of tyres could be used for mandated a final stop for softs five laps from the finish. That would have left him pointless if not for a slew of post-race track limits penalties for drivers ahead of him that boosted Zhou back up to ninth in the final classification.
