Mexico: Superb qualifying sparks seventh for Daniel in Mexico
Daniel lifts AlphaTauri off the foot of the constructors’ table with a cooly-taken seventh place after a stunning second-row start.
Race data
Mexico (Round 19 of 22), 27-29 October 2023
Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, 4.304km
Qualified: 4th
Finished: 7th
Laps per position: 4th (18 laps), 5th (17 laps), 6th (24 laps), 7th (12 laps)
Pit stops/tyres: Lap 27 (medium/hard), lap 34 (hard/hard, under red flag)
Fastest lap: 1min 22.679secs (7th), lap 66
Points this event: 6
Points this season: 6 (17th in world championship)
Daniel's download
“That was good – actually, that was probably better than good! There were definitely moments today … when I was fourth I thought ‘if the race finished now, I’d be pretty happy’. Then I was fifth after the first (pit) stop, I thought ‘fifth is alright …’. But all in all, it’s a good weekend … and after last week, this is really the weekend I dreamed of, and we got it.
“There’s a lot of emotions after a race like that … relieved is one, because two race starts on this track, you hold your breath because it’s such a long run into Turn 1 and anything can happen. The first start, we started fourth and came through fourth so I was pretty happy, especially when we know we have a little bit more drag than others here. The second one, when I saw the red flag I felt it was going to hurt our race, we were in fifth and potentially could have finished there, but of course in that situation you can’t be too selfish, obviously (Haas driver) Kevin (Magnussen) had a big crash so I was happy to hear he was OK.
“Doing the restart on the hard (tyre) with some cars on mediums, to lose just one spot at the end wasn’t the best-case scenario, but it was close to that. We tried to settle into a rhythm and (McLaren’s) Lando (Norris) was much quicker. I fought for a couple of corners and then we let him go, and thought if he could catch (Mercedes’) George (Russell) it could bring George back to us. It did on the last lap, we got close, but to fight a Mercedes at the end … it’s been a big weekend for us.
“Six points, I can’t be sad … when you get that close you look at two more points. But big-picture, we should be really happy with that.”
DR’s race recap
* Qualified fourth, his best qualifying since Belgium 2021 and AlphaTauri’s best qualifying since Qatar that same season.
* Maintained fourth on the first lap, and was then passed by Hamilton/Mercedes on lap 11 to drop to fifth.
* Pitted from fourth on lap 27, re-joined in fifth place.
* Was fifth when the race was red-flagged on lap 33 for Magnussen/Haas crash.
* Passed by Russell/Mercedes on first lap of restarted race, dropped to sixth.
* Demoted to seventh by Norris/McLaren on lap 60.
* Set his fastest lap of the race on lap 66 (1:22.679).
* Finished in seventh place after 71 laps, 0.550secs behind Russell in sixth, and 41.570secs behind race-winner Verstappen/Red Bull.
DR’s next destination
Round 20: Brazil (Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace), 5 November
Brazil in 2022: qualified 11th, did not finish
In F1: 11 races, 33 points, 5 points finishes, 3 DNFs
Best finish: 4th (2018)
