Lance Stroll (P10, 1 pt): 6.5/10
Lance Stroll was fifth fastest in first practice when competing with a line-up that included ten rookies, but didn't make it into the top ten in FP2 or FP3 and sure enough dropped out of qualifying at the end of Q2, having put himself into 13th place on the grid for the race - nothing remarkable there. He started the race on a scrubbed set of hard tyres and managed not to drop any positions, and as other drivers ahead of him pitted he briefly featured in the top two behind Yuki Tsunoda, before making his first stop on lap 22. There was some solid work during the middle stint but his last pit stop and a change to the mediums meant the final stint was a challenge to get him back into the points. Problems for Carlos Sainz in the closing laps gifted Stroll the extra place he needed to finish in P10, which all things considered was reasonable recompense for a decent weekend's work.
Lewis Hamilton (P9, 2 pts): 7/10
It's surprising to see how far ahead in the points Lewis Hamilton finished the season compared to George Russell, because he was barely mediocre in Abu Dhabi while Russell was left in charge of defending Mercedes' perilous claim to the runners-up spot in the constructors' championship from Ferrari. Right from the start Hamilton struggled to get the pace out of the W14 he's clearly come to loath. Even switching to Russell's set-up in the face of his team mate's much better practice performance did little for him on Saturday, where he deservedly missed the second cut in qualifying. He remained glum in the race, colliding with Pierre Gasly early on, then accusing Fernando Alonso of brake testing him, and finally having a battle with Yuki Tsunoda that threatened to send them both into the barrier. He survived and even ended up contributing to the Mercedes points pot, which while not strictly speaking essential was still a way of saving face as Hamilton prepared to deposit the W14 into the nearest available skip he could find.
