Austria: Daniel resists pressure to stay strong for points
It was an afternoon of getting your elbows for Daniel at the Red Bull Ring, with an early pit stop and some strong defence leading to a second top-10 Grand Prix finish of the season.
Race data
Austria (Round 11 of 24), 28-30 June, 2024
Red Bull Ring: 4.318km
Sprint qualifying: 16th
Sprint race (24 laps): 14th
Qualified: 11th
Grand Prix (71 laps): 9th
Laps per position: 9th (8 laps), 10th (34 laps), 11th (2 laps), 12th (10 laps), 13th (2 laps), 14th (1 lap), 15th (3 laps), 16th (9 laps), 17th (1 lap), 18th (1 lap)
Pit stops/tyres: Lap 10 (medium/hard), Lap 37 (hard/hard)
Fastest lap: 1min 10.426secs (18th), lap 49
Points this event: 2
Points this season: 11 (13th in world championship)
Daniel's download
“That one was hard-fought, definitely. I actually semi-apologised to [race engineer] Pierre [Hamelin] afterwards – I was like ‘yeah, sorry, I couldn’t talk that much today’. I was pretty locked in, it took a lot of concentration and effort.
“We were a bit more on the defence, a bit more mirror-watching today. It felt like we were hanging on to get points by the skin of our teeth, but we did it. For most of the last stint, I felt like we weren’t a very fast car in our group. But I think the strategy, the team did well. We used our two [sets of] hard [tyres] to our advantage, pitting early and securing the position over the Alpines. At the end it took some clean laps and [Pierre] Gasly was quite quick on the medium [tyre]. Haas outscored us today, but we got some points and managed a bit of damage limitation, so it’s been a better weekend.
“Leaving the track on a Sunday feeling like we got pretty much the most out of it … there are always going to be areas where I can do better and improve, but as a whole we swipe out of the paddock with a smile and feeling like we ticked most boxes. I’ve got to keep that up.
“It’s a nice feeling to fight and drive a clean race and obviously bring a couple of points home for the team, when I think we’ll look back at our pace and say ‘maybe we didn’t belong in the points’. In some parts we overachieved, and we’ll maybe give ourselves a little pat on the back!”
DR’s race recap
* Started 16th and finished 15th in Saturday’s sprint race.
* Started 11th for Sunday’s Grand Prix, lost positions to Gasly/Alpine and Magnussen/Haas on lap 1, passed Leclerc/Ferrari.
* Pitted on lap 10 from 12th place for hard tyres, rejoined in 18th.
* Advanced to 10th on lap 37, pitted for hard tyres, resumed in 16th.
* Moved inside top 10 on lap 45.
* Improved to ninth on lap 52, repassed by Perez/Red Bull on lap 53, to 10th.
* Gained a place to ninth after Verstappen/Red Bull and Norris/McLaren clash on lap 65.
* Finished ninth, 61.169secs behind race-winner Russell/Mercedes, 0.8secs behind Magnussen in eighth and 0.6secs ahead of Gasly in 10th.
DR’s next destination
Round 12: Great Britain (Silverstone), 7 July
Great Britain in 2022 (most recent race): qualified 14th, finished 13th
In F1: 13 races, 1 podium, 79 points, 8 points finishes
Best qualifying: 4th (2016)
Best finish: 3rd (2014)
