Hungary: Early pit stop ruins Daniel’s day
Daniel was left frustrated after an untimely early strategy call to pit just seven laps in saw a chance to score points go begging, halting a weekend of better pace for RB.
Race data
Hungary (Round 13 of 24), 19-21 July, 2024
Hungaroring: 4.381km, 70 laps
Qualified: 9th
Finished: 12th
Laps per position: 9th (1 lap), 10th (1 lap), 11th (14 laps), 12th (18 laps), 13th (8 laps), 14th (1 lap), 16th (11 laps), 17th (12 laps), 18th (2 laps), 20th (1 lap)
Pit stops/tyres: Lap 7 (medium/hard), Lap 28 (hard/hard)
Fastest lap: 1min 22.640secs (12th), lap 30
Points this event: 0
Points this season: 11 (13th in world championship)
Daniel's download
“That was a long old frustrating race where I just had a lot of anger, one of the worst ones I’ve had in 250-something races. We took ourselves out of the race so early with the early pit stop, and we just made it so difficult for ourselves.
It’s even more frustrating because we were quick all weekend. We had pace, we were on the medium tyre and we could have stayed out in clear air and stayed calm, just do what we’d done all weekend. You don’t want to pull in the pits … you get the call to box, and you know this isn’t the thing to do but there’s no time to question it. But as soon as I pulled in, the cars on soft tyres had already pulled in, then we come out in traffic and it’s just a DRS train and we’re all on the same tyre. It felt like I was just driving around.
“Saturday, that was lots of emotions as well. Even when [teammate] Yuki [Tsunoda] crashed … the first thing you see is ‘red flag’ on your dash. I’d just started a timed lap, so your initial thing is you’re angry, and then they’re like ‘Yuki’s in the wall’ so you’re ‘is he OK?’. It’s a lot. Q1, we were out, it starts raining more … and then we’re P1 with no DRS! So it was a weird session.
“Coming into this weekend … I’m always putting pressure on myself, but these races before the break are important … as important as ever, probably. So that’s why its frustrating.”
DR’s race recap
* Qualified 9th, started on medium tyres and finished lap 1 in 11th after being passed by Albon/Williams and Magnussen/Haas, both on softs.
* Pitted from 10th on lap 7 for hard tyres, fell to 18th.
* Pitted again for hard tyres from 16th on lap 28 and dropped to 20th.
* Advanced to 14th on lap 34 after Gasly/Alpine retired.
* Passed Bottas/Sauber for 12th on lap 44.
* Finished 12th after 69 laps, 1 lap behind winner Piastri/McLaren, and 15secs ahead of Hulkenberg/Haas in 13th.
DR’s next destination
Round 14: Belgium (Spa-Francorchamps), 28 July
Belgium in 2023: qualified 19th, finished 16th
In F1: 13 races, 1 win, 3 podiums, 1 fastest lap, 86 points, 7 points finishes
Best qualifying: 4th (2020, 2021)
Best finish: 1st (2014)
