Charles Leclerc (Sprint P3, GP DSQ, Pole, 6 pts): 7.5/10
Just to be clear, we're making no deductions for Charles Leclerc's post race disqualification - the thickness of the wooden plank under his Ferrari is literally out of his hands. Of the things that were within his power to control, he pulled off a brilliant pole on Friday and came within half a tenth of beating Max Verstappen in the Showdown. But when it came to race performance, things weren't so rosy: forced wide by Verstappen at the start of the Sprint he was passed by Hamilton and could find no way of redressing the situation. In the race, an attempted one-stop strategy proved a major error by the Ferrari brains trust and he limped home in sixth only to be told he had actually been disqualified altogether because of a piece of wood.
Sergio Perez (Sprint P5, GP P4, 16 pts): 6.5/10
With Mexico not far away from Austin, the fans were certainly backing Sergio Perez this weekend as he bids to secure the runner-up spot in the drivers championship - and also keep his seat alongside Max Verstappen at Red Bull. There were no major mistakes by Perez this weekend, but nor was there the sort of stand-out show of excellence that he could really do with at this point. He should have been able to to better than P9 in qualifying but at least he reached Q3. Seventh was slightly better in the Showdown and he picked up two places in the Sprint. When it came to the race he did some neat overtakes but lacked overall consistency: "At times I was very fast, at others less so." The post-race qualifications handed him P4 but that's somewhat flattering to his actual form.
