Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin (SP18, P14): 5.5/10
Things really have unravelled for Aston Martin as the season has gone on, to the point that it's no longer a surprise to see Fernando Alonso sandwiched between the two Sauber cars in the final results on Sunday. Alonso had missed media day on Thursday as he was late to arrive in Brazil after seeking medical treatment having felt unwell after Mexico, and he never seemed to catch up the lost ground. Ninth in practice, he looked on pace in sprint qualifying but the team opted to make overnight changes to the AMR24 that dropped him to the back of the grid for Saturday race from which he didn't recover. He made it through to Q3 again on Sunday qualifying but suffered from brake issues and excessive bouncing in the race before spinning in the wet conditions leaving him firmly at the back.
Valtteri Bottas, Sauber (SP16, P13): 6/10
This proved ot be one of Valtteri Bottas' better race weekends of recent times. He will have enjoyed finishing ahead of Max Verstappen in practice and then slipping into the second round of sprint qualifying, finishing the race in 16th which is about the best Sauber can hope for at the moment. Inclement conditions on Sunday morning saw him starting the Grand Prix from a surprise 11th place but of course that meant a lot of faster cars were behind him and wasted no time roaring past once the race got underway. By lap 17 he was at the back with his Sauber team mate Zhou Guanyu, which says it all about where the team is at the moment. Hard to blame Bottas for any of that, but dispiriting for the Finn all the same.
