Daniel banks solid fifth in chaotic Jeddah debut

In a race of incident everywhere you looked, Daniel turned a qualifying negative into a race-day positive with his first points in four Grands Prix. 

Unless they win, any Formula One driver always wants more – and Daniel is no different. But after his fifth place in Sunday's inaugural Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, he'll happily take the 10 world championship points after a recent dry run … as well as wondering, ever so slightly, what might have been in a more "normal" race.

It was a madcap first Grand Prix at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit under lights, the 6.174km track the second-longest on the calendar after Spa-Francorchamps, and the second-fastest after Monza. Add 27 corners – the most of any track on the schedule – and a series of sweeping curves hugging the coastline, and the race was intense and action-packed elsewhere, which made Daniel's relatively smooth run just as exhausting, but a little less stressful. 

"The race was pretty wild," Daniel says. 

"Street circuits are always a little more dangerous … it wasn't the safest track, but also I thought it was fine, and I was happy to race there. It was just late! An 8.30pm start, red flags, interruptions … I was so tired after the race, just exhausted from a time standpoint. It was physically demanding too, as intense as Singapore, similar to there." 

Daniel's Sunday was one of recovery after Saturday's qualifying session took an unwanted turn. Third after Q1, Daniel ran over a kerb and sustained floor damage to his McLaren in Q2, and the compromised pace of his car saw him just miss out on the top 10 and Q3 by 0.052 seconds. If he'd repeated his Q1 time of 1min 28.216secs, he'd have been fifth in Q2, but qualifying outside of the top 10 meant he could choose what compound of tyre to start on for the race.

Electing to use the harder Pirelli to run long in the first stint, Daniel's Sunday immediately came alive when he overtook Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo) and Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) on lap one to get to ninth, which became eighth when he passed Tsunoda's teammate Pierre Gasly on lap eight. But the benefits of running long weren't fully realised when the race was red-flagged following a crash by Mick Schumacher's Haas, leaving Daniel on medium tyres for the restarted race and 37 laps to nurse them to the chequered flag. 

After a restart, another red flag, another restart and numerous safety cars and virtual safety cars to remove debris strewn across the unrelenting layout, Daniel's race became one of fighting Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas for fourth on medium tyres that were always going to be on the limit. 

The pair traded places on lap 39, Daniel quickly taking fourth spot back from the Finn, but Bottas' faster car and fresher tyres proved too much, Daniel settling into fifth place for the final 10 laps. 

After three pointless races in Mexico, Brazil and Qatar, Daniel was glad to score for the first time since he was fifth in Austin in late October. 

"I was pretty happy with another top five," Daniel says. 

"Starting on the hard for the original race start would have been pretty good for us if it was a 'normal' race, but in saying that the restarts kind of helped because my starts were good! But being on the medium, I just had too much degradation. So fifth was the best I had in the circumstances. 

"I was pushing for the hards to start – I had to convince a few members of the team but everyone got on board! Without any red flags it was a good thing to do. 

"I think if it was a green flag race from start to finish, my strategy would have given me a better chance to get (Esteban) Ocon, but at best we could have been fourth." 

Ahead of Daniel, title protagonists Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) and Max Verstappen (Red Bull) finished 1-2 on the podium for the 13th time in 21 races this season, meaning they'll go into next weekend's final race of the season in Abu Dhabi deadlocked on 369.5 points in a winner-takes-all fight for the championship. 

The race at the Yas Marina Circuit is the 22nd of the year and wraps up the longest season in F1 history, and Daniel has two fourth places (2014 and 2018) to his credit in Abu Dhabi, as well as setting the fastest lap of the race on the final lap of the 2020 season for Renault a year ago. 

"Energy levels are pretty low at this time of the year, for all of us," he says. 

"I know I've got one good one in me – and then I absolutely need a break!"