Franco Colapinto, Williams (P14): 5.5/10
Franco Colapinto certainly made an impact in Vegas. Unfortunately that impact was the Williams FW46 hitting the concrete wall at turn 16 during qualifying, after making what can only be described as a rookie error. Colapinto had to pass medical checks before he was allowed to start the race, and did so from pit lane after the engineers completed yet another rebuild of the car in time for lights out. He kept it clean in the opening laps on hard tyres and was P12 when he pitted for the first time on lap 16. Unfortunately that proved to be the upper limit on what the Argentine could manage this weekend, perhaps a result of all those rush rebuilds on his car across recent weekends.
Zhou Guanyu, Sauber (P13): 7/10
While his Sauber team mate Valtteri Bottas appeared somewhat lacklustre in Vegas, Zhou Guanyu - who has known he won't be back on the grid in 2025 for some time now - actually perked up and looked rather rejuvenated. He made the first cut in qualifying and out-performed Liam Lawson in Q2, as well as the accident-prone Franco Colapinto to set himself up with P13 on the grid for Saturday night's race. He was inevitably picked off by the out-of-position Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso, but otherwise did well to hold his own throughout the 70 laps. Points were never in sight but 13th was a solid outcome for the Chinese star facing his final F1 curtain in two weeks.
