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Rio Haryanto became the final piece of Formula One's 2016 jigsaw puzzle in mid-February when, just four days before the start of winter testing, he was confirmed as a Manor Racing driver for the new season.

With a patchy record in GP2—each of his three victories in F1's official feeder series came in reverse-grid "sprint" races—it was obvious from the outset that Haryanto's signing had more to do with the size of his budget than the size of his talent.

A £10 million gift from the Indonesian government, as reported by Motorsport.com's Jonathan Noble, certainly would have come in handy for a Manor team who had emerged from the depths of administration less than 12 months earlier.

Considering that Haryanto was placed alongside Pascal Wehrlein, widely regarded as a future Mercedes driver, and endured an interrupted testing schedule—including spins on his first two days behind the wheel of the MRT05 car—it was difficult to recall a driver entering F1 with such limited expectations.

But to his credit, Haryanto has kept his highly rated team-mate honest enough in the first half of 2016 to have enhanced his own reputation.

Following our analysis of Renault's Jolyon Palmer earlier this season, here's what we make of Haryanto's steady start to life in F1.