Valtteri Bottas (P14): 6.5/10
As we discussed when analysing his Sauber team mate Zhou Guanyu, it's hard to give an accurate rating for Valtteri Bottas given that whatever he does in the cockpit on the track, he still eventually has to pit - and that's where the team's problems lie. In this case it was 'just' a 3.5s delay in the pit box while the pit crew struggled to fit on new tyres but that's enough to ruin any driver's hopes of a successful race. It resulted in a public apology to the drivers by the team representative Alessandro Alunni Bravi who confirmed in Bottas' case the hold-up was related (but not quite the same) as the team's issues in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. "We clearly lost a big opportunity to score points, as Valtteri would have been there or thereabout with Yuki Tsunoda (P7) by the end of the race," Bravi acknowledged after the race.
Pierre Gasly (P13): 6.5/10
Pierre Gasly was slower than his Alpine team mate Esteban Ocon in first practice, then slowest of all in FP3, and then missed the first cut in qualifying while Ocon went through to line-up in 15th place on the grid. A long 17-lap stint on the first set of mediums saw him peak well inside the top ten, but pitting under the brief Virtual Safety Car deployed for Lewis Hamilton's retirement saw him hit traffic as he came out which undid much of the early good work. He did at least finish the race ahead of his team mate, but that was in large part due to a tear-off issue that forced Ocon to pit an additional time. Overall it seemed to us that the pair were - not for the first time - closely matched, but that their overall performances were limited by the capabilities of the A524.
