France: Daniel holds his ground at Le Castellet
Daniel spends every lap inside the top 10 for the second time this season to finish where he started, banking consecutive points results at a baking Circuit Paul Ricard.
Race data
France (Round 12 of 22), 24 July 2022
Circuit Paul Ricard, 53 laps, 5.842km
Qualified: 11th (started 9th after engine penalties for Sainz/Ferrari and Magnussen/Haas)
Finished: 9th
Laps per position: 3 laps (7th), 29 laps (8th), 20 laps (9th), 1 lap (10th)
Pit stops/tyres: Lap 18 (medium/hard)
Fastest lap: 1:39.133 (14th, lap 27)
Points this event: 2
Points this season: 19 (12th in world championship)
Daniel's download
"It was decent to be back in the points again, but to be honest the whole stint pace is still not quite there. The longer the stints went, I tended to drop off – it's like I'm killing the tyres and don’t have much more to give, but I'm not a driver who kills the tyres, I'm trying to be as careful as possible. I'm not asking for it, put it that way! But that tailing off … that's where the race tends to get away from me. Working out how to get the grip out of the car for longer is the goal and would end some of that frustration.
"I defended for a long time against (Alpine's Esteban) Ocon there towards the end for eighth – I was surprised I held on for as long as I did. Me keeping Ocon behind gave (McLaren teammate) Lando (Norris) some space, otherwise I think Ocon was quicker than both of us. Alpine were just quicker than us today, so we ended up where we did.
"We had a few upgrades for this race but I feel the car was much the same, maybe with better grip. It has the same characteristics, so while it's better for us as a team on the stopwatch, I wouldn’t say it's better for me per se. It was good to get more out of the stopwatch though, so that's a positive.
"Hungary comes up next weekend before the summer break and it's a place where I have some strong memories, winning there in 2014 was a good one! I feel like it's been a while since I had a good Budapest so I feel like I'm due. I love the circuit and I hope we can still be aggressive in the second sector of the lap with the kerbs in these new cars, because that's fun. It's shaping up to be a hot old Sunday there and passing could be tricky, so qualy will be important. We'll try to have fun and see if we can get some more lap time out of this girl …".
How Daniel's race unfolded
* Started ninth, finished first lap in eighth after passing Tsunoda/AlphaTauri.
* Passed by Ocon/Alpine on lap 7, dropped to ninth.
* Pitted under safety car for Leclerc/Ferrari crash on lap 18, re-joined in seventh.
* Overtaken by Sainz/Ferrari on lap 21, fell to eighth.
* Advanced to seventh when Sainz pitted on lap 42, demoted to eighth by Sainz one lap later.
* Passed by Ocon on lap 45, dropped to ninth.
* Finished in ninth place after 53 laps, 60.372secs behind race-winner Verstappen/Red Bull, 3.4secs behind Ocon in eighth and 2.1secs ahead of Stroll/Aston Martin in 10th.
Next race
Round 13: Hungary (Hungaroring), 31 July
Last race (2021): qualified 11th, finished 11th
Career: 10 races, 71 points, 1 win, 3 podiums, 2 fastest laps, 5 points finishes, 1 DNF
Best finish: 1st (2014)
Hungary highlights: Took his second F1 win in Budapest in 2014 for Red Bull Racing, passing Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso to claim the lead in the closing laps. Also finished on the podium in third place in 2015 and 2016. The only circuits where he's taken more than the three podiums he's earned at the Hungaroring are Monaco and Singapore (four each). Set fastest lap in 2015 and 2018.
