Esteban Ocon (Sprint P14, GP P10, 1 pt): 7/10
Although he missed the final cut in qualifying, Esteban Ocon was feeling pretty upbeat at the end of Friday. "The differences are tiny," he said, adding: "Everything remains to play for, tomorrow and Sunday." Unfortunately he suffered a big smash in the Showdown (he denies he lost control and blamed Fernando Alonso exiting pit lane ahead of him at the wrong time) and was lucky that Alpine managed to put the shattered car back together in time for the Sprint. He described the A523 as "functional" and fast on the straights on Saturday, but lacking pace elsewhere and prone to eating tyres. The Sprint was essentially a shakedown of the repaired Alpine for the Grand Prix, which was his best performance of the weekend as he succeeded in taking the final point on offer at the line despite early clutch problems.
Yuki Tsunoda (Sprint P6, GP P9, 5 pts): 8/10
It was a bit of a roller coaster ride for AlphaTauri this weekend, and for Yuki Tsunoda in particular. There was huge disappointment when he failed to make it out of the first round of qualifying (by very fine margins) and he was determined to make up for it on Saturday in the Showdown. He did indeed succeed in getting through to SQ3, and started and finished the Sprint in sixth place for some valuable points in the team's battle with Williams over P7 in the constructors championship. There were more points on Sunday when the early retirements allowed Tsunoda to work his way back into the top ten. The weekend might have started on a low, but by the time AlphaTauri packed up on Sunday night Tsunoda was definitely on somewhat of a high.
