Sergio Perez (Retired, Lap 56): 8.5/10Sergio Perez had a less flashy weekend than Verstappen, but his performance seemed to confirm what we were seeing from the Red Bull as a whole - certainly one of the top contenders this weekend, but continually edged by a Ferrari: in this case, Carlos Sainz. As usual it took the Mexican some time to dial himself in. He was a second slower than Verstappen at the end of Friday's practice sessions, but he came good on Saturday with fourth on the grid. Wheel spin cost him two positions at the start of the race but by lap 10 he had re-passed both Kevin Magnussen and Lewis Hamilton to put himself back into position and he spent the rest of the evening quietly putting in the laps. Verstappen's retirement briefly put him into podium contention, but then his own RB18 developed a completely different power supply family and there was nothing Perez could do when the car abruptly stopped working with one lap to go.
Nico Hulkenberg (P17): 5.5/10
Even for an established 'super sub' like Nico Hulkenberg, coming into this weekend's race at such incredibly short notice to cover for COVID-hit Sebastian Vettel was always going to be a tall order. New rules and regulations meant that unlike last year, Hulkenberg was faced with an entirely new car unlike any he had driven in F1 and without the benefit of a single lap of testing. There was only so much that his prior experience of 179 Grand Prix starts could do to help him in this situation. The Aston Martin was 17th at the end of Friday's practice which proved to be where he qualified 24 hours later. In the race he was soon overtaken by Alfa Romeo rookie Guanyu Zhou, and by his own team mate Lance Stroll while he himself was distracted by tangling with Mick Schumacher, and by lap 20 he was running dead last. A long absence from a full-time F1 race seat meant that the physical toll mounted as the laps ticked by, and balance problems with the AMR22 vexed him to the finish.
