'Disappointment in the Zandvoort dunes for Daniel’

The circuit was awesome, but the result after 72 laps around it on Sunday less so as Daniel overcame a pre-race scare to finish 11th at the Dutch GP.

Zandvoort was a fun place but not a fruitful race for Daniel as the Dutch Grand Prix came back onto the calendar for the first time in 36 years last Sunday, his McLaren coming home in 11th place outside of the points. 

The first Dutch GP since 1985, fuelled by fervent local support for championship contender Max Verstappen, made this a weekend to remember with the 'Oranje Army' producing a flare-smoking, dance music-pounding atmosphere unlike anything seen to support one driver in recent F1 history. That, and an old-school circuit with a new twist and two unique banked corners made it an enjoyable weekend for all 20 drivers, but Daniel's smile was muted after failing to score for the fourth time this season. 

In his first race at Zandvoort since Formula 3 some 12 years ago, Daniel was underwhelmed after Saturday when, following strong runs in Q1 (ninth) and Q2 (sixth), he managed 10th on the starting grid with a Q3 lap that was two-tenths of a second slower than his lap to make the top 10. Repeating that Q2 lap in Q3 would have had him eighth on the grid, but thoughts of qualifying quickly dissipated 24 hours later when he very nearly didn't start the race at all. 

As he pulled up to the grid, Daniel discovered he couldn't engage first gear and gestured that he had a problem before race engineer Tom Stallard instructed him to use the left-hand clutch paddle instead, which did the job just before the lights went out. 

Initially, the distraction didn’t seem to bother Daniel; George Russell (Williams) and Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) both passed him after his slightly panicked getaway, but Daniel disposed of both rivals plus Antonio Giovinazzi's Alfa Romeo to end the first lap in ninth place. 

"I had a little bit of a clutch paddle failure," Daniel explains. 

"I guess it was a steering wheel malfunction. I thought it was a gearbox failure because I couldn't engage the gear, but I just had to use the other paddle. It was pretty stressful though, because I had to do the start with my left hand. Co-ordination is with my right, so all things considered it wasn't a horrendous start! Beyond that, I don't believe it affected my race." 

Daniel stayed ninth until his lap 30 pit stop for hard tyres, and was back inside the top 10 when McLaren teammate Lando Norris made his own stop for hards on lap 42. With Norris on fresher rubber, Daniel let his teammate by to make the most of his younger Pirellis three laps later, and while he advanced to 10th when Red Bull's Sergio Perez pitted on lap 48, Perez returned the favour on lap 54, leaving Daniel to finish one frustrating place outside of the points after 72 laps of toil. 

"Generally speaking, we just weren't quick enough," he says. 

"If we'd put everything together, we were probably an eighth-place car at the very best. In the race, we just didn't have the pace to run with the Alpines and the other cars ahead. Obviously the team thought of that strategy to get me and Lando both up in the points, but I think it hurt our race in the end. They tried to make it work, but it didn't so my race was a bit compromised after that. 

"With the beauty of hindsight, we would have done that differently." 

Zandvoort was a tricky weekend for McLaren on the whole, with Norris taking one point for 10th place, while Ferrari managed 16 after Charles Leclerc finished fifth and Carlos Sainz seventh, the Scuderia leapfrogging McLaren into third place in the constructors' standings. 

Daniel's non-score, allied with a fourth-place finish for Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri), demoted him to ninth overall in the standings ahead of this weekend's third leg of the post-summer break triple-header, the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. 

The Italian GP this year comes with a new-look Saturday, with Sprint Qualifying being contested over 18 laps that evening to set the grid for Sunday's 53-lap race proper. Daniel has two fourth places to his credit at Monza in nine previous starts (2017 for Red Bull and 2019 for Renault), while last year he finished sixth.

"Triple-headers, you get a bit tired but Monza … it's not crazy physical so it should be alright," he says. 

"I'm looking forward to all of it – it's a track I love and a place I enjoy so I'm definitely looking ahead – with some positive aggression as well!"