1. Carlos Sainz-

What more is there to say about Carlos’ performance that hasn’t already been said? After having an operation for appendicitis two weeks before, Sainz returned and won the race in a dominant fashion. It was a truly superhuman performance from Carlos, who continues to prove himself a driver who deserves to be in a top seat.

2. Lando Norris-

Sainz’s former teammate maximized all his opportunities in Australia. After pit strategy put Norris behind his teammate, Oscar Piastri, McLaren later ordered Piastri to let Norris past on lap 29. Norris then proceeded to build a 30 second gap to his teammate in 29 laps. This shows that Norris was dominant in the McLaren team in Australia and he believes that he could have beaten Leclerc to second, with better strategy.

3. Yuki Tsunoda-

Tsunoda is beginning to embarrass Daniel Ricciardo. In a year in which Ricciardo was supposed to prove he was still the driver who left Red Bull, he’s instead proving he is the driver who was dropped from McLaren. Whilst Ricciardo was nowhere during his home race, Yuki was consistently in the hunt for points and he left with six of them. Whether Yuki’s performances become consistent enough to lead to a Red Bull seat is yet to be seen, but he may have already ended Ricciardo’s chances.

4. Lance Stroll-

Lance deserves praise for his performance this weekend. He outqualified Alonso and finished ahead of him in the race, albeit this was assisted by Alonso’s debatable penalty. But still, Lance showed good pace, kept it clean and scored a large haul of points for Aston Martin to help maximize their opportunities in a week their silver rivals did anything but.

5. Nico Hulkenberg-

Nico Hulkenberg made it back-to-back points finishes in Australia. Whilst not maximizing qualifying, he maximized his race performance, to finish in front of all the other cars in the midfield, bar Tsunoda. With three front running cars retiring in Australia, this resulted in 9^th and 10^th finishing places for Haas, further bringing forward their revival under new team principle Komatsu.

Tally:[1]

1. Max Verstappen- 2
2. Carlos Sainz- 2
3. Nico Hulkenberg- 1.5
4. Charles Leclerc- 1
5. Sergio Perez- 1
6. George Russell- 1
7. Oscar Piastri- 1
8. Lando Norris- 1
9. Lance Stroll- 1
10. Oliver Bearman- 1
11. Yuki Tsunoda- 1
12. Zhou Guanyu- 1
13. Kevin Magnussen- 0.5

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[1] Of how many times drivers have featured in these lists.