Pierre Gasly, Alpine (P12): 7.5/10
There's little doubt that Pierre Gasly would have finished in the points if not for being excluded from the results of qualifying for a fuel flow irregularity on his Alpine that saw him starting Sunday's race from the back row (a few cars starting from pit lane notwithstanding). He was certainly fast enough. After a sluggish time in practice he kicked off qualifying in fourth place at the end of Q1 and eventually booked himself a place in P13 on the grid - until he was kicked out. He had the advantage of being one of the faster cars among the usual minnows at the back of the grid when the lights went out on Sunday and jumped up three places at the start. He did an impressive job of preventing Lewis Hamilton from getting past in the opening laps, before reaching a peak of ninth on an astonishing 50-lap stint on hard tyres before a last minute switch to softs under the VSC to comply with regulations. A smart, sneaky move - and a pretty successful one too.
Nico Hulkenberg, Haas (P11): 7/10
Nico Hulkenberg must have felt like a man out of time this weekend. With one foot out of the door for Sauber in 2025 he found himself alongside one of his forthcoming replacements in the Haas line-up as Oliver Bearman took over for Kevin Magnussen (due to a mandatory one race ban for the penalty points the Dane had accrued over the season trying to help Hulkenberg out). Bearman proved a match for Hulkenberg on Friday, and despite a crash in final practice still out-qualified the German in qualifying. Actually they seemed very well matched throughout the weekend, but over the course of the race it was Hulkenberg's experience that gradually won out. It looked like he would finish ahead of Bearman and in the points until he was caught out by the Sainz/Perez crash. "I got caught off guard. The whole track was covered in debris, and I ran over a massive piece which I couldn't see because of a car in front of me," he said. "I lost positions there, and lost the result. It was a pretty crazy two last laps, but unfortunately not in our favour."
