Valtteri Bottas, Sauber (P16): 5.5/10
Recent driver announcements have boosted Valtteri Bottas' hopes of staying at Sauber for another year - he's almost the last candidate standing, with even his current team mate Zhou Guanyu effectively throwing in the towel this week. The big question is why Bottas wants it, because this must be the ultimate soul-destroying exercise for a racing driver who once competed for race wins and titles. There's simply nothing Bottas can do in the C44, although he had his moment in the Italian sun when he was fifth fastest in first practice. But By FP3 and qualifying he was predictably back on the back row with Zhou. In the race, he opted for a massive 33-lap first stint on the hard tyres and gained from the early misadventures of Nico Hulkenberg, Pierre Gasly, Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda. However he stayed out too long and eventually started going backwards before finally pitting. Lance Stroll's curious late third stop meant he finished in 16th, which compared to recent outings could almost be considered a success. It really isn't.
Pierre Gasly, Alpine (P15): 5/10
After a shaky start to the season, Alpine had shown some welcome signs of life in recent weeks with Esteban Ocon in the points at Spa and Gasly finishing ninth last week in Zandvoort. But neither driver looked like adding to the team's tally this time, and both failed to crack the top ten in any of the three practice sessions. They did make the second round of qualifying but were slowest of the Q2 runners, leaving Gasly starting from P14 once place ahead of his team mate. Sunday proved to be a battering experience for the Frenchman, swept wide by Daniel Ricciardo and later hit by Kevin Magnussen using him as a braking aid. Gasly and Ricciardo continued to battle until the matter was resolved on lap 28 after which Gasly pitted for a second time, while Ricciardo ran to the finish on the same set of used set of hard tyres. Ocon had also gone for the one-stop approach which helped him finish just ahead of Gasly at the chequered flag.
