'Kinda crazy, kinda not: Daniel takes two points from Baku’

The Azerbaijan Grand Prix was eventful for some, but for Daniel it was a largely methodical run into the back-end of the points – plus a madcap two-lap dash to the finish. 

The city streets of Baku routinely throw up a chaotic race – as Daniel knows all too well from winning the Azerbaijan Grand Prix from 10th on the grid after a crash earlier in the weekend in 2017. Fast-forward four years to last Sunday, and while Azerbaijan rated an A on the excitement scale for some, it was a fairly routine run to ninth for Daniel, and a pair of world championship points.

Daniel started from 13th on the grid following a shunt in Q2 on Saturday at Turn 4, which caused one of four red flags in a stop-start session that was a portent of what was to follow in the race 24 hours later. And while the 51-lap race had a safety car for a crash for Lance Stoll's Aston Martin just after half-distance and then a late red flag after leader Max Verstappen shunted his Red Bull on the start-finish straight, Daniel's race was more of the methodical variety.

"There were a couple of moments of crazy, but for a big part of it the race was fairly status quo," Daniel says.

"Crashing in qualifying sucks, but I tried to do what I was thought was possible, braked late and tried to really lean on the car and squeeze it, and obviously it didn't hold on. I took some lessons from that, but 13th is where I had to start.

"The race … we were all in a bit of a train and I was probably missing a couple of tenths of a second to make some inroads and make something happen. The rolling start after the safety car and then the standing start after the red flag spiced it up, but the rest of the time it was fairly uneventful."

Both Stroll and Verstappen's crashes came as a result of punctures, with Pirelli launching an investigation into the cause.

"I didn't see any debris on the track, but with it being a street circuit there's lots of other things like rubbish, tree branches and so on," Daniel explains.

"With my own tyres, I had some pretty big vibrations, they were getting worse, and I think it was a bit of a flat spot on the left front. I didn't have a big lock-up but probably just a few small ones contributed to that. The track is so high speed that a few vibrations get pretty big by the end of the straight. Before the red flag – my tyres would have made it to the end, but I guess I couldn't see too much!"

Verstappen's late crash saw the grid re-form for a two-lap dash to the chequered flag, and while Daniel started from ninth and stayed there after five manic minutes, it was hardly plain sailing.

"The two-lap re-start at the end – I was happy to have it, because I was in a position with not a lot to lose," he says.

"It's such a short run to Turn 1 and I hated being on the outside because there wasn't much you could do. I thought I had a good run on (Ferrari's Carlos) Sainz but then I saw him start to drift up, so I figured someone was on the inside of him. I was going to eat another barrier if I stayed in it, so I had to back out – and then into Turn 2 (Alfa Romeo's Antonio) Giovinazzi ran into me as it all bottled up. There wasn't much I could do, so I stayed ninth.

"It was good to get some points – nothing mind-blowing but at least it was some points – and I'm looking forward to some conventional tracks now."

The first of those more standard circuits comes at Paul Ricard in France in two weeks' time, followed by a double-header at the Red Bull Ring in Austria as part of a run of four races in just five weekends. It's a hectic schedule, but one Daniel feels could be to his benefit after slipping to 10th in the drivers' standings after six rounds.

"Paul Ricard – a track with a bit more space than Baku – and having three weekends in a row to get some rhythm, that's what will help me at the moment," he says.

"I'm looking forward to the triple-header to really get stuck in and start getting some proper results again.

"I miss those, so we'll keep chipping away!"