George Russell (P6, 8 pts): 8/10
George Russell missed out on first practice in favour of Frederik Vesti, which never helps, but by final practice he had bounced back to P4 ahead of Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton. In truth, Russell always looked like he was playing catch-up to Hamilton this weekend, and in qualifying he was two spots behind the former world champion. That left him stuck in seventh place for the first half of the race, but he gained two spots after the red flag restart by gambling on medium tyres for the remaining 35 laps. Unfortunately he was hit by cooling problems in the final laps and lost out to a late attack by the flying Lando Norris, and will probably ultimately see sixth as underperforming.
Lando Norris (P5, 10 pts): 9/10
Lando Norris came into this weekend predicting that the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez wouldn't suit the MCL60. He then finished second at the end of Friday practice just a tenth off the pace of Max Verstappen, meaning he was either sandbagging or just a terrible prognosticator. Unfortunately things went awry in qualifying, in which McLaren took a risky approach and Norris fumbled the ball on a crucial lap before getting caught out by yellow flags. Naturally he blamed himself - he always does. But he rallied in the race and was back in the top ten by the red flag. Like Lewis Hamilton he gambled on mediums for the restart only to drop four places with wheelspin, which appeared to be game over for him - except he then put in 30 of the best laps of driving of the season to finish P5. What he might have achieved in Mexico if not for those couple of setbacks...
