Sergio Perez, Red Bull (P10, 1 pt): 6/10
Neither Red Bull was looking in good spirits on Friday, but of the pair it was Sergio Perez who appeared somewhat more robust than Max Verstappen. That switched round on Saturday and now it was Verstappen vying for the front row while Perez was struggling. He missed the second cut in qualifying meaning he would start outside the top ten. "All of a sudden it became quite difficult to nail the lap," he explained. "Something was going on with the brakes for me." He made a good start to the race and gained three positions on the first lap but then got firmly stuck behind Franco Colapinto. Yes, you heard that right: a Red Bull unable to pass a Williams. He finally got ahead during the pit stops but that gain was offset by being undercut in turn by Carlos Sainz and so he ended up stuck in tenth place again, contributing just one point to Red Bull's prize pot just when they need everyone firing on all cylinders if they're to beat McLaren to the title.
Nico Hulkenberg, Haas (P9, 2 pts): 8/10
There have been grumbles about whether a veteran driver like Nico Hulkenberg is really the right choice to spearhead Audi's forthcoming works project, but week-after-week he makes his case the only place that matters - on the track. He's making the Haas look much better than it really is and showed steady progress after struggling in first practice, confidently working his way through qualifying to put the car into sixth place on the grid. Hulkenberg was admittedly somewhat helped by the Ferrari blowout in Q3. He survived the jostling of the first lap and settled into a calm and confident sixth behind Oscar Piastri while defending well from those behind. Even though he was on a standard half-and-half two stop strategy split between medium and hard tyres, the pit stops worked against him and he when he resumed he found himself behind Fernando Alonso in ninth place from which there was no way back, no matter how hard Hulkenberg tried,.
