Sergio Perez (P2, 18 pts): 8.5/10
It's strange to look at a comfortable second place finish for Sergio Perez and be slightly disappointed for him. He was last year's race winner in Jeddah so this is one of his best circuits, but once again he was no match for his Red Bull team mate Max verstappen. But then again, who is at the moment? He was in the top five throughout practice and looked to have a front row starting spot in the bag until he was bumped down by Charles Leclerc at the end of Q3. When it came to the race, he did all that was asked for him by making quick work of Leclerc on lap 4 and then cruising along behind Verstappen for the rest of the evening. The five second penalty he got for an unsafe release on pit lane during the safety car pit stops makes the final gap to Verstappen look bigger than it really was. In any case, the team wouldn't have thanked him for pushing any harder than he did.
Max Verstappen (Pole, P1, 25 pts): 9.5/10
Objectively speaking, we could have given Max Verstappen a perfect ten this week. But at this stage of the Red Bull driver's utter domination of Formula 1, he needs to do something truly extra-special to attract gushing praise, and the reality is that this was very much business as usual for the reigning world champion. It's just that 'normal' for Verstappen happens to include topping all but one session of the weekend, including sweeping all three rounds of qualifying, before disappearing into the distance in the race with the exception of five laps after the safety car pit stops allowed Lando Norris to briefly take the lead. It's grasping at straws, but not being top in FP2, not leading every lap of the race, and missing out on the bonus point for fastest lap to Charles Leclerc is enough cover for us to deny him a full ten out of ten rating. That's fair, right?
