Miami: Daniel on the defensive to finish 13th in Florida

A race of defending more than attacking saw Daniel finish outside of the points as F1 made its long-awaited debut in Miami.

Race data
Miami (round 5 of 23), 8 May 2022
Miami International Autodrome, 57 laps, 5.412km
Qualified: 14th
Finished: 11th (classified 13th after five-second post-race penalty)
Laps per position: 11 laps (8th), 2 laps (9th), 2 laps (10th), 6 laps (11th), 4 laps (12th), 16 laps (13th), 6 laps (15th), 1 lap (16th), 9 laps (17th)
Pit stops/tyres: Lap 30 (medium/hard), lap 41 (hard/soft)
Fastest lap: 1:33.265 (11th, lap 56)
Points this event: 0
Points this season: 11 (11th in world championship)

Daniel's download
"It was a warm one and a long race, and there's a lot to observe and address. Certainly some moments of it were fun, I found myself in some battles, but I was never quite in the points and I found myself defending more than I was attacking. It was a little bit of a tougher circuit for us. It's tough when you do a long race like that and don't get in the points!

"We were trying our best to hold on, and I think in the medium (tyre) stint we were able to go long at the beginning, but I'm not sure if we were that quick. But then with the hard (tyre) I just really struggled to get that going. Towards the end of the race when everything gripped up, we just couldn't run with the quicker cars.

"We'll keep at it. I think this circuit certainly played to a few of our weaknesses with lots of long corners, lots of long straights. We've got to work on that, and then hopefully Barcelona will suit us a bit more, so I'm looking forward to that.

"Everyone is going to have a few updates for Barcelona, so hopefully ours give us a little more juice and get us back in the points, back in the fight."

How Daniel's race unfolded
* Qualified 14th, started 12th after Stroll/Aston Martin and Vettel/Aston Martin started from pit lane.
* Passed Russell/Mercedes on lap 1, advanced to 11th.
* Overtaken by Schumacher/Haas and Magnussen/Haas on lap 3, dropped to 13th.
* Passed Tsunoda/AlphaTauri on lap 10, improved to 11th.
* Advanced to eighth on lap 19 in first pit stop phase.
* Pitted from eighth on lap 30, re-joined in 17th.
* Pitted from 16th on lap 41 under safety car following Norris/McLaren crash.
* Advanced to 11th on lap 56 after contact between Vettel/Aston Martin and Schumacher/Haas.
* Set his fastest lap on lap 56 of 57 (1:33.265).
* Finished 11th, but penalised five seconds and classified 13th, 40.902secs behind winner (Verstappen/Red Bull).

Next race
Round 6: Spain (Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya), 22 May
Last race (2021): qualified 7th, finished 6th
Career: 10 races, 65 points, 2 podiums, 1 fastest lap, 7 points finishes
Best finish: 3rd (2014, 2016)
Spain highlights: Took his first career podium in 2014 for Red Bull Racing. Started third in 2014 and 2016. Set the fastest lap in 2018. Finished in all 10 starts.