F1i's Driver Ratings for the 2024 Japanese GP

Zhou Guanyu (Gearbox, Lap 13): 5.5/10
It seems unfair to pronounce any judgements on Sauber's drivers when it's the car and the team itself having serious issues at the moment. After their catalogue of pit stop problems in the first three races, this time it was a gearbox problem that forced Zhou Guanyu to retire in pit lane after just 12 laps. Nothing he could do, although to be honest there was little sign that he would have featured anywhere except at the back of the field even if he had lasted the distance. He'd been off the pace all weekend, lagging behind his team mate Valtteri Bottas in the dry sessions, and then ending qualifying slowest of anyone. A back row spot on the grid pretty much sealed his fate even before the gearbox decided it wasn't all that interested in continuing.

Logan Sargeant (P17): 4.5/10
We had a huge amount of sympathy for Logan Sargeant when he was benched in Australia in order to hand his car over to Williams team mate Alex Albon. This week, Sargeant got stuck with Albon's old chassis, now repaired but far from pristine as a result of its past-life traumas. The one thing Sargeant had to make sure he didn't do was crash it again - so that's exactly what he did in first practice. It couldn't be re-repaired in time for FP2, but that proved a moot point when it turned out to be more or less a washout anyway. Back in action on Saturday, he inevitably missed the first cut in qualifying and lined up for the start of the race on the back row of the grid. He started on softs but the red flags enabled him to switch to the hard compound for the restart, and he was able to get ahead of both Alpine cars before he went wide into the gravel at Degner 2 on lap 41. The time spent reversing out meant that he dropped to the back and stayed in detention until the chequered flag.