Alexander Albon, Williams (P14): 6.5/10
Alex Albon did his best to take advantage of the changeable conditions in qualifying on Saturday but missed out on getting through to Q3 and had to settle for P14 on the grid. Opting to start on soft tyres allowed him to make up four places when the lights went out, but at the cost of an early pit stop. That dropped him into the gaggle of cars including Haas and Aston Martin, all of which were faster than the Williams. The team had originally planned on two-stopping, switched to three on the fly, at which point Albon used up his tyres - only for the team to change its mind and revert to two stops. By now his pace was fatally compromised and ALbon was understandably unhappy with the pit wall vacillation.
Nico Hulkenberg, Haas (P13): 6.5/10
Nico Hulkenberg's impressive qualifying pace continues to be Haas' biggest ace in the hole, even though this time he just missed out on making it through to the final round and lined up in P11 on Sunday. Unfortunately it was a really terrible start and first lap for the German, forcing the team to think out of the box with an innovative race strategy in an attempt to claw back lost ground. A very early stop on lap 2 dropped him to the back but by the time he pitted for a second and final time he was back within fingertip distance of the top ten. For his extended final stint he settled into 13th place between Daniel Ricciardo and Alex Albon, but he was lacking the pace to get ahead of the RB before the finish.
