Daniel Ricciardo (P12): 6/10
It wasn't a great weekend for Daniel Ricciardo, who started Sunday's race from P18 after his crucial final lap in qualifying was deleted for exceeding track limits. A short first stint on soft tyres actually served him quite well (unlike Lewis Hamilton who got little out of a similar tactic) and the Australian climbed to 13th after the other cars made their own stops. That's where he remained until the final lap, when George Russell's accident gifted him 12th place at the line. Not bad, but significantly behind his RB team mate Yuki Tsunoda who started and finished the race in the top ten, showing the true potential of the VCARB 01. Ricciardo admitted that he didn't know why he wasn't able to get more out of the car, which is exactly the song he was left singing at McLaren when his team mate there likewise started to pull away from him. A worry.
Alex Albon (P11): 6.5/10
Alex Albon looked somewhat embarrassed to be on the grid for the Australian GP, which frankly is to his credit. He didn't like the idea that his team mate Logan Sargeant had been forced out of the race through no fault of the American's but because Albon himself had smashed his own car to pieces in FP1, and Williams had no spare chassis available. You can understand team principal James Vowles' reasons for prioritising Albon over Sargeant in the hope of scavenging up a point or two, and Albon did came within touching distance of paying off that decision, but in the end the FW46 simply wasn't up to the task even in Albon's talented hands. If he hadn't been thwarted by a robust Kevin Magnussen, it would have been a different picture. But that's the problem in a nutshell: this year's Haas is surprisingly faster and more robust than the Williams, which must be a concern to all at Grove.
