Austria: Recovery at Red Bull Ring gets Daniel back into the points
Gradual gains after a poor qualifying and a decisive race start set the scene for Daniel to push back inside the top 10 in Spielberg.
Race data
Austria (Round 11 of 22), 10 July 2022
Red Bull Ring, 71 laps, 4.318km
Qualified: 16th (Sprint Race: 12th, started Grand Prix 11th after Bottas/Alfa Romeo engine penalty)
Finished: 9th
Laps per position: 1 lap (6th), 2 laps (8th), 18 laps (9th), 22 laps (10th), 11 laps (11th), 3 laps (12th), 6 laps (13th), 7 laps (14th)
Pit stops/tyres: Lap 12 (medium/hard), lap 44 (hard/hard)
Fastest lap: 1:09.924 (13th, lap 61)
Points this event: 2
Points this season: 17 (12th in world championship)
Daniel's download
"After the way Friday went, we have to be pretty happy with that. I think we recovered well over the course of the weekend, so it was a case of damage limitation on this circuit for the way our car is this year.
"In the Sprint I was a little happier with the car, there were a few corners where I felt stronger than in the race itself. That wasn't enough to keep me in the battle with (McLaren teammate) Lando (Norris) and the two Haas cars, but to be somewhat in the race … look, it's not going to make me spray champagne, but it was OK, it was decent.
"I flat-spotted the front left tyre off the start into Turn 1 and I gained a position on Lando, but the tyre was obviously affected, especially in the right-hand corners. Any time you've got to lean on that outside front I was nowhere, and had chronic understeer. So it took me out a bit early on, and I was quite relieved to hear people were struggling early with tyres, the race turned into a two-stop pretty early. I didn't lose out as much as I could have if it was a one-stop. After that, I was a few tenths of a second off here and there and not really fast enough to make much of an impression on the cars in front.
"Alpine are now level with us in the constructors' (championship) and I'd say they've consistently been better than us this year, in terms of as a team. This year they've shown a lot more consistency in terms of pace than they did when I was there, when some circuits would be really strong while others weren't quite there. So they're definitely a real threat.
"Paul Ricard coming up is a completely different track; we might have a few go-fast bits here and there, so hopefully it kind of comes to us. I don't feel we're going to have awesome tracks – we'll have ones that are decent, but I'm not sure there's any we're going to be red-hot on. But let's see where a few updates get us."
How Daniel's race unfolded
* Started 11th, overtook Norris/McLaren to advance to ninth after spin for Perez/Red Bull.
* Re-passed by Norris on lap 5, dropped to 10th.
* Pitted from 10th on lap 12, re-joined in 14th.
* Moved back inside the top 10 on lap 27 after Alonso/Alpine and Tsunoda/AlphaTauri pitted.
* Advanced to sixth before second pit stop on lap 44, re-joined in 14th.
* Passed Albon/Williams to re-enter top 10 on lap 57.
* Advanced to ninth when Sainz/Ferrari retired on lap 57.
* Finished in ninth place after 70 laps, one lap behind race-winner Leclerc/Ferrari, 4.7secs behind Magnussen/Haas in 8th and 2.1secs ahead of Alonso/Alpine in 10th.
Next race
Round 12: France (Circuit Paul Ricard), 24 July
Last race (2021): qualified 10th, finished 6th
Career: 3 races, 20 points, 2 points finishes
Best finish: 4th (2018)
France highlights: Qualified fifth in first F1 race at Paul Ricard in 2018 for Red Bull Racing, and finished fourth. Spent 32 of 53 laps in the podium positions in 2018. Spent all but nine laps in the points in 2021 for McLaren. Finished second at the circuit on his first-ever visit in 2011, driving in the Formula Renault 3.5 series.
