Italy: Oil leak ruins run in the points for Daniel

Daniel spends three-quarters of the race comfortably inside the top 10 before retirement eight laps from home leaves him stranded.

Race data
Italy (Round 16 of 22), 11 September 2022
Monza, 53 laps, 5.793km
Qualified: 8th (started 4th after penalties for Verstappen/Red Bull, Perez/Red Bull, Sainz/Ferrari and Hamilton/Mercedes)
Finished: DNF (oil leak, lap 45)
Laps per position: 1 lap (3rd), 11 laps (4th), 6 laps (5th), 1 lap (6th), 2 laps (7th), 10 laps (8th), 2 laps (10th), 8 laps (11th), 4 laps (12th)
Pit stops/tyres: Lap 20 (medium/hard)
Fastest lap: 1:26.603 (12th, lap 39)
Points this event: 0
Points this season: 19 (14th in world championship)

Daniel's download
"That was one of those races where I only moderately happy with the pace. I felt like out of Parabolica that was I was doing alright and being quick where I needed to be, but it's still a bit of a head-scratcher with not being able to push like I want to. Especially with tyres, leaning on them to get something out of them. When I do push, I just spin up the rear or understeer and make it worse, so I feel like I'm driving it at a three out of five to keep things under control.

"The pace was good enough to hold off (AlphaTauri's Pierre) Gasly for most of the race, which is good because I felt he was probably quicker than us. I was trying to be clean and do what I could, and while I was happy with that I was doing, it's still a tricky beast to push with.

"We switched to the hard for the first stop and we had to pit to cover Gasly … maybe I could have gone longer on the medium tyre I started on, but covering him was the strategy. (McLaren teammate) Lando (Norris) went long in his first stint, the team was splitting the strategies. I'd got into a decent rhythm with the hard tyres with about 10-15 laps to go, and then eight laps left … the car just stalled, the engine switched off at Turn 6 and there was no advance warning. I had to pull over straight away because it was stuck in gear and so I couldn’t roll to a safe place, and that was that.

"The Valentino Rossi tribute helmet – it was pretty awesome to be able to do that in Italy. I would have loved to have run it the whole weekend, but it was fun to rock it on race day. We thought about it at the start of the year when we tried to plan out some helmets, and I sent Rossi a photo of it last week to make sure he was cool with it – he said he loved it, and I told him I'd gift it to him at some stage. Maybe I'll get one of his in return! I like doing that sort of stuff, it makes me happy.

"That brings us to the end of a triple-header and my energy was actually pretty good here, but you definitely have to grind at the end of three races in three weeks. I'm definitely ready to have a few days off, and then we have Singapore which is going to be brutal in these cars. I'll need to keep up my training and get in the sauna between now and then."

How Daniel's race unfolded
* Started 4th, passed Norris/McLaren off the line to end Lap 1 in third place.
* Passed by Verstappen/Red Bull on Lap 2, fell to fourth.
* Overtaken by Sainz/Ferrari on Lap 12, dropped to fifth.
* Pitted on Lap 20, re-joined race in 12th on hard tyres.
* Progressed back into the points on Lap 32 when Alonso/Alpine retired.
* Advanced to sixth on Lap 36 after Norris/McLaren and Bottas/Alfa Romeo pitted.
* Passed by Hamilton/Mercedes and Norris/McLaren on Lap 37, dropped to eighth.
* Retired on Lap 45 when running in eighth place.

Next race
Round 17: Singapore (Marina Bay), 2 October
Last race (2019): qualified 20th, finished 14th
Career: 8 races, 4 podiums, 3 fastest laps, 79 points, 6 points finishes
Best finish: 2nd (2015, 2016, 2017)
Singapore highlights: Daniel's four podiums in Singapore – all in succession from 2014-17 for Red Bull Racing – represent the equal-most podiums of any circuit in his F1 career along with Monaco. Has finished second in Singapore three times, coming closest to victory in 2016 when he finished 0.488secs behind winner Nico Rosberg (Mercedes). Set the fastest lap in 2015 and 2016, qualifying on the front row in both of those years. The only circuits where he's scored more F1 points are Monza, Monaco and Spa-Francorchamps.