Esteban Ocon (P16): 6.5/10
You can tell that the expectations on Alpine have been reset since the start of the season, by the way that Esteban Ocon's performance in Australia was praised by many. This seems largely based on the way he made the first cut in qualifying, while his team mate Pierre Gasly missed out. Given how sluggish the A524 has been so far this season that was indeed a genuine achievement. He was also quite punchy when it came to the race itself, a match for the other backmarkers around him. He would have finished higher up if not for a tear-off strip getting stuck in his wheel forcing him to make an additional pit stop after just seven laps on his initial set of hard tyres. For all the hope that it gives for better times ahead for Alpine, we can't justify a higher rating for Ocon this week.
Zhou Guanyu (P15): 6/10
When was the last time that a team has suffered from so many problems in pit lane like Sauber? Either Zhou Guanyu or Valtteri Bottas (or indeed both) have had at least one significant delay in each of the three races of the season so far. For any other team that would be a full season's worth of mishaps, and heads would be rolling down pit lane like unattached tyres. In this case it was a gearbox issue outside of Zhou's control which caused him to stall when he tried to engage the gears to pull away. That said, Zhou's race had already been compromised by the need for a pit lane start after he damaged his car in qualifying; if not for that he might have bumped Esteban Ocon out of the second round. But he didn't, and so there was little cause for the Chinese driver to celebrate in Melbourne.
