Logan Sargeant (Fuel pump, P16): 5/10
Having picked up his first championship point last week in Austin albeit under slightly fortunate circumstances, the prospect of being the only driver to end the season pointless was a monkey off the American rookie's back. However the pressure to prove he deserves a second season with Williams continued to loom large. He put in solid service in practice in Mexico, only to stumble once again in qualifying when he committed a cardinal sin of F1 by overtaking another car under yellow flags, on a pretext that didn't impress the stewards one bit. He started the race from the back and had a steady initial stint, even getting past the struggling Fernando Alonso in the opening laps before peaking in 14th prior to his first pit stop. He did badly in the red flag restart and dropped to the back but passed Alonso a second time and benefitted from other drivers' misfortunes and retirements to slowly rise up to 12th before a last minute fuel pump problem.
Valtteri Bottas (P15): 6/10
Valtteri Bottas was absent from first practice as the team handed the seat over to Théo Pourchaire, but the Finn was probably relieved to be spared the brake-by-wire issue on the car that confined the French driver to just four laps. Bottas had no such problems in FP2 and soared to fourth in the timesheets, and was still sixth at the end of final practice. Both Alfa Romeos made it through to the final round of qualifying and things were looking promising for the race, but he lost places at the start. His pit stop came just before Kevin Magnussen's accident caused a red flag that gave everyone else a 'free' stop. He recovered to 13th after the restart but clashed with Lance Stroll on lap 66 which cost him track position and earned him a post-race penalty that dropped him to 15th.
