Esteban Ocon, Alpine (P16): 5.5/10
After four back to back races in the points, this was an unexpected stumble for Alpine who suffered their first pointless outing since Imola. While Pierre Gasly's spin and gearbox issues are easy to understand, it's hard to know exactly what was amiss for Esteban Ocon. Operational problems in qualifying meant Ocon missed the first cut and lined up on the back row of the grid (which was already depleted by Gasly's DNS and Sergio Perez starting from pit lane). In the race it just looked like a lamentable lack of pace for the Alpine which was soon passed by Valtteri Bottas in the Sauber. While Ocon can claim to have beaten a Red Bull, the truth is that he was two laps off the lead by the finish.
Valtteri Bottas, Sauber (P15): 5.5/10
He might have been outperformed by his Sauber team mate in qualifying for the first time this season, but Valtteri Bottas has the last laugh on Zhou Guanyu when it came to Sunday. He calmly worked his way up from the back of the grid to pass a struggling Esteban Ocon and benefitted from Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc making early stops in a futile attempt to overcome qualifying setbacks. After that, Bottas settled in behind Daniel Ricciardo and made sure that none of those he had jumped up to now got back by him, yielding a respectable 15th place. It's probably the upper limit of what the Sauber can expect to achieve right now.
