Carlos Sainz Jr., Williams (P14): 4/10
Sainz always takes a fair few races to get to grips with new machinery after joining a new team, and this seems to be the case at Williams as well. He’s still noticeably behind teammate Albon on pace, and a careless impedance of Hamilton at the end of Q2 cost the Spaniard three places on the starting grid. In the Grand Prix, Sainz was noticeably quicker than Lawson but was stuck behind for quite a while. He eventually passed him after pitting for soft tyres but any chance for points had been dashed some time ago.
Pierre Gasly, Alpine (P13): 5/10
Yet another result tantalisingly close to points for Gasly and Alpine, who are so far the only constructor to not have a point on the board in 2025. The French outfit did take a small step back in relative performance compared to China, as Gasly failed to make it out of Q2. The race itself was a quiet albeit stressful one for Gasly, who had to keep a charging Red Bull of Tsunoda behind him for the first half of the race. The Frenchman eventually lost out to the home hero in the pitstop phase, and finished less than ten seconds off a points-paying position.
