Daniel Ricciardo (P14): 5.5/10
It's been a bit of a torrid time for Daniel Ricciardo, and missing the whole of the second pre-season test after coming down with COVID had clearly been a big blow to both the driver and McLaren as a whole. While he was cleared to race this weekend, the lingering after effects of the virus can't have helped and it was painful to see him toil away for so little reward: the best he did in practice was P16, and it was no shock to see him start the race from the penultimate row at the back of the grid. He spent the first ten laps running dead last, but at least the first round of pit stops put him ahead of Aston Martin super-sub Nico Hulkenberg. The late safety car and an opportunistic extra round of pit stops actually put him ahead of team mate Lando Norris for the final few laps, and the late retirement of Sergio Perez promoted him to 14th at the line which was his highest position of the race - or indeed the entire weekend. The best that can be said that is that at least it gave Ricciardo some long overdue time behind the wheel of the MCL36.
Alexander Albon (P13): 7/10
It was good to see Alex Albon back in harness this weekend. His last outing with Red Bull at Abu Dhabi in 2020 had been a good one, ending up in fourth place. But there was little chance of that sort of success upon his return, now he's with Williams at the other end of the grid. He was dead last at the end of Friday's practice and only P17 in FP3, so it was actually a job well done in qualifying when he succeeded on getting through to the second round to put himself into 14th for the start of the race, in an echo of the sort of Saturday performance George Russell used to excel at. However the (lack of) race pace of the FW44 was telling, and after gaining places at the start Albon soon succumbed to attacks from Yuki Tsunoda, Valtteri Bottas, Guanyu Zhou and Lance Stroll before the first round of pit stops. After that he settled into 15th place where he gained a couple of spots at the end with the demise of both Red Bulls ahead, meaning a net gain of one place on his starting spot - in the circumstances, by no means a bad result.
