Gains in Spain: Strong start bumps Daniel to sixth in Barcelona
Daniel didn't have the race he was expecting at the Spanish Grand Prix – and as he explains, that's very much a good thing …
A familiar track, a storming start and two stints at the limit – all those factors came together for Daniel at the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday, where he converted a seventh-place start into a sixth-place finish in his most satisfying weekend so far for McLaren.
After the unusual start to the 2021 season – a night-race season-opener in Bahrain preceding visits to Imola and Portimao – round four saw the teams and drivers touch down in Spain for 66 laps of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, site of endless days of pre-season testing for all but one of Daniel's 10 F1 campaigns before 2021. Racing somewhere where he knew every inch of tarmac was just what the doctor ordered.
"It was good to go to a track like Barcelona where I could just get into it, where I knew it so well that I didn’t need to experiment or explore too much," Daniel explains.
"I know what a car can do around there, so it was a case of 'alright, let's get to that limit'. It was good to chip away at it without other variables or question-marks."
Daniel qualified on the fourth row on Saturday, just 0.002 seconds behind Ferrari's Carlos Sainz who started sixth, but the long run to the first corner in Barcelona is one of the few times to make a difference in a race where passing is normally at a premium, and Daniel seized his chance.
Sainz and Esteban Ocon (Alpine) were dispatched on the run to the first turn, and Daniel ended lap one in fifth place, the out-of-position Red Bull of Sergio Perez looming large in his mirrors.
Rather than focusing on the race ahead, Daniel's afternoon became one of resisting the pressure Perez put on him, and he did it so well that the Mexican only made it past after 46 of the 66 laps, by which time Daniel had cemented himself firmly inside the top six for the run to the chequered flag. It wasn't the type of afternoon he was expecting, but his speedy getaway gave him a race he relished.
"It wasn't a race where I could take much of a breath at all, and that makes me happy," Daniel grins.
"Getting a good start meant I was on the defensive with some quicker cars behind, but it was actually good because I had to defend and not do that much tyre saving. So that forced me to push and explore the limits of the car a bit more, which kept me on my toes the whole race!
"It was fun, and while Perez got past me eventually, that wasn't a battle I was realistically going to come out on top of. To hold him off as long as I did, I take some positives and pride out of that."
Daniel held off Sainz for the final 13 laps, crossing the line just under a second ahead of the hometown Spaniard, and eight world championship points saw him retain seventh overall in the drivers' championship with 24 points after the opening quartet of races, and enabled McLaren to stay five points ahead of Ferrari for third in the constructors' standings.
After back-to-back GPs in Portugal and Spain, Daniel and the rest of the grid press pause for a week before heading to a race that, even by its usual standards, means more than most this time around. Monaco was one of the Grands Prix culled from the calendar for COVID reasons last year, and the 2018 winner around the famed Monte Carlo streets is even more excited than usual to return to a track where he's scored more points than any other (85, including four podiums) in his F1 career.
"Monaco, I'm smiling even thinking about it," he says.
"To be deprived of it for two years, I just cannot wait to get there. I'm not even thinking of how the car is going to perform there, I just can't wait to turn a few laps.
"The atmosphere will be a little bit weird and maybe sad as well to not see it in full swing with the crowds being limited, but it's a privilege to drive an F1 car around there, drive a track like that in anger. I'm hanging out for it – I'm definitely going to make the most of it!"
