Spain: No celebrations on milestone for Daniel in Barcelona

On the weekend Daniel surpassed Mark Webber as the most experienced Australian driver in F1 history, 12th and no points was scant reward.

Race data
Spain (round 6 of 23), 22 May 2022
Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, 66 laps, 4.675km
Qualified: 9th
Finished: 12th
Laps per position: 6 laps (8th), 4 laps (9th), 2 laps (10th), 3 laps (11th), 17 laps (12th), 32 laps (13th), 1 lap (15th)
Pit stops/tyres: Lap 11 (soft/soft), lap 31 (soft/medium), lap 48 (medium/soft)
Fastest lap: 1:27.285 (15th, lap 54)
Points this event: 0
Points this season: 11 (11th in world championship)

Daniel's download
"That was a pretty sad race to be honest, just wasn't a good one. From the start, it was a struggle – much as I'd like to find something positive. I was slow, and it felt like I had less grip than the people I was fighting with. It felt like cars passed me and pulled away very quickly.

"I had three pit stops, four different chances on sets of tyres, but just didn’t have the pace on any of them so we need to find out why. The upgrades we brought this weekend were good, so hopefully we find something that explains it once we dig into it. We're quite sure something wasn't right, based on the debrief. We'll keep digging and look into it.

"Qualifying got me ninth on the grid, I was happy to get into Q3. But in the race we were nowhere from the start to the end and I never felt I could lean on the car. I was struggling everywhere, lacking grip to the cars around me that I should be fighting with. I couldn't lean on the tyre so I couldn't manage tyres, and if I tried to do that I went even slower, operating on a poor level of grip.

"It was hot out there, I don't recall a Spanish Grand Prix as hot as that in all the years I've been coming here, but it wasn't as hard as Miami because of the humidity there, Miami was a sweat-fest. This was easier, but still difficult.

"Becoming the Australian driver with the most starts (Daniel surpassed Mark Webber with his 216th F1 start in Spain) – it makes me feel pretty proud. I'm not really one for stats and all that, but where it makes me proud is that it's like anything – top of sport, top of business – getting to the top is one thing, staying there is another. I’ll take that.

"Monaco is next – next Sunday! – and that's always one to look forward to. It'll be tricky in these cars with the kerbing, the bumps, the visibility isn't going to be as good – but it's still Monaco. Everyone is going to have their own challenges, and it'll be very tight amongst the midfield. Hopefully we get on top of Spain, understand it and put ourselves in a decent place next weekend."

How Daniel's race unfolded
* Qualified 9th, ended lap 1 in 8th place after passing Hamilton/Mercedes and Magnussen/Haas (both went off track), and being passed by Schumacher/Haas.
* Passed by Ocon/Alpine on lap 5, demoted to ninth.
* Overtook Sainz/Ferrari after Sainz spun on lap 7, improved to 8th.
* Passed by Norris/McLaren on lap 9, dropped to 9th.
* Passed by Tsunoda/AlphaTauri on lap 11, dropped to 10th.
* Pitted on lap 11, dropped to 15th.
* Moved up to 12th on lap 15 as other drivers pitted.
* Gained a place to 11th on lap 27 after Leclerc/Ferrari retired.
* Pitted on lap 31, dropped to 13th.
* Advanced to 12th on lap 43 when Vettel/Aston Martin pitted.
* Pitted on lap 48, fell to 13th.
* Set his fastest lap of the race on lap 54 (1:27.285)
* Passed Schumacher/Haas for 12th on lap 64.
* Finished 12th, 13 seconds behind Vettel/Aston Martin in 11th, and one second ahead of Gasly/AlphaTauri in 13th.

Next race
Round 7: Monaco (Circuit de Monaco), 29 May
Last race (2021): qualified 12th, finished 12th
Career: 8 races, 85 points, 1 win, 2 poles, 4 podiums, 1 fastest lap, 6 points finishes
Best finish: 1st (2018)
Monaco highlights: Took maiden F1 pole position in 2016 for Red Bull Racing. Won from pole position in 2018. Scored four podium finishes in five years from 2014-18. Fastest lap in 2015. Second-most points (85) of any circuit in career (Monza, 89).