Japan: Patience leads to pain as Daniel falls out of points

Daniel is left to rue an early-race decision to stick it out in the spray after a wild, waterlogged Sunday at Suzuka.

Race data
Japan (Round 18 of 22), 9 October 2022
Suzuka, 53 laps, 5.807km
Qualified: 11th
Finished: 11th
Laps per position: 1 lap (3rd), 7 laps (8th), 8 laps (11th), 1 lap (12th), 8 laps (13th), 2 laps (14th), 1 lap (15th)
Pit stops/tyres: Lap 2 (intermediate/wet – during red flag) and Lap 8 (wet/intermediate)
Fastest lap: 1:47.843 (15th, lap 11)
Points this event: 0
Points this season: 29 (12th in world championship)

Daniel's download
"It was tough out there today, in terms of knowing when to pit in the 'real' race. I'd heard (Sebastian) Vettel pitted early from the back but we had good track position, so we stayed out and tried to see where that would get us. He was at the back and finished sixth and I ended up back where I qualified in 11th, so of course in hindsight we should have pitted the next lap. But it was just so hard, even from a driving point of view, just to see the track, whether it was wet enough, drying … we were relying on his lap times to gauge it and were maybe discussing it too long when we should have pulled the trigger. That would have got us in the points if we'd pitted earlier, but it's always easy to say that after the fact. So, a tricky race – we didn’t even think we'd get racing again after the red flag, to be honest …

"I got stuck in a bit of a Suzuka train once I switched to the inters, but it was more the tyres – the fronts wear so quickly, some laps they come and some laps they go. It's hard to get too much more out of them, and when you start to follow closely you lose a little bit more and it's hard to take the ideal line. Visibility too today was hectic, so that didn't help.

"The recovery vehicle that was on the track and the incident with (Pierre) Gasly – look, we were all pretty shocked – and with it being here at Suzuka as well after what happened here (in 2014 with Jules Bianchi) … it just can't happen. Black and white. It just cannot happen.

"Max (Verstappen) won the title today – last season was an awesome one for an F1 fan, but this one … it didn't exactly go down to the wire. I don't know if he was better this year than last year, but I think the team was better and he maximised all of that, which is what he does. OK, so maybe he was a bit better – but it's not like last year he wasn't good! He's certainly come into his own and the confidence, the maturity – all of that is there. He's pretty flawless at the moment. Congrats to him.

"Austin is next, and I can't wait. Hanging out for that – all of it! The whole week, the music, the barbeque … I'm going to embrace it and enjoy it."

How Daniel's race unfolded
* Started 11th, finished Lap 1 in eighth place after passing Norris/McLaren and Vettel/Aston Martin, and after retirements for Sainz/Ferrari and Albon/Williams.
* Race red-flagged on Lap 2, two-hour delay.
* Race resumed behind safety car on Lap 3, restarted/green flag on Lap 6.
* Advanced to third on Lap 8 as rivals pitted.
* Pitted at end of Lap 8 and re-joined in 15th place on intermediate tyres.
* Advanced to 14th on Lap 10 after Zhou/Alfa Romeo pitted.
* Moved up to 13th on Lap 12 when Schumacher/Haas pitted.
* Improved to 12th on Lap 20 when Stroll/Aston Martin pitted.
* Advanced to 11th on Lap 21 when Tsunoda/AlphaTauri pitted.
* Finished 11th after 28 of the scheduled 53 laps (race hit three-hour time limit), finishing 72secs behind race-winner Verstappen/Red Bull, and 2secs behind Norris/McLaren for the final points position.

Next race
Round 19: USA (Circuit of the Americas, Austin), 23 October
Last race (2021): qualified 7th, finished 5th
Career: 9 races, 2 podiums, 49 points, 5 points finishes
Best finish: 3rd (2014, 2016)
COTA highlights: Daniel had his primary purple patch in Austin from 2014-18, where he finished third on two occasions for Red Bull Racing and started inside the first two rows of the grid for four successive years. Led for seven laps in 2015, one of the 19 races and 340 laps where he's led in his career. Has made Q3 and started inside the top 10 on his past eight visits to the circuit, and has scored points in his past five finishes at COTA.