Valtteri Bottas (Sprint P19, GP DNF, 0 pts): 5.5/10
Valtteri Bottas had a similar frustrating time in Brazil as his Alfa Romeo team mate. Like Zhou Guanyu he was a long way off making it through to the second round of qualifying on Friday after heading out too early to get the full advantage of track evolution. He did better on Saturday but then went backwards in the race with other drivers commenting that the C43 was leaking oil, although Bottas himself saw no such signs. In the Grand Prix he looked set to benefit from multiple retirements only to end up joining their number with the same engine issue that had already claimed Zhou.
George Russell (Sprint P4, GP DNF, 5 pts): 7/10
Despite obvious straight line speed deficiencies for Mercedes at Interlagos, George Russell and team mate Lewis Hamilton managed to lock out the third row of the grid in qualifying - before naughty boy Russell earned himself a two-place grid drop for flouting the new directives about slowing at pit exit. In the Sprint he started fourth and immediately got the better of Sergio Perez and Lando Norris only to then lose pace and surrender the hard won places back as the race went on. It was a similar story on Sunday - good start, but then an inexorable decline. Additionally frustrated by the team not allowing him to pass Hamilton, the matter became moot when all that time spent in Hamilton's hot, dirty air led to fatal overheating and retirement on lap 57.
