Daniel Ricciardo drove like a driver possessed in Sunday’s Mexico City Grand Prix, after overcoming a ten-second time penalty to claim the ‘best of the rest’ spot in seventh. It proved to be a solid race for the McLaren F1 Team at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, as Lando Norris was on hand to finish ninth, securing a double-points finish for the Woking-based team.
The race itself saw little overtaking, with Ricciardo having only been capable of doing so in the final twenty laps as a result of being on the Soft compound tyres. Ricciardo went for a long opening stint on the Mediums before switching over, making him one of the only drivers to do so. Norris did excellently to play the team game, after letting the Honey Badger past to pursue the BWT Alpine F1 Team drivers.
Ricciardo stormed his way into seventh and extended his lead over eighth-placed Esteban Ocon to beyond ten-seconds, eliminating his penalty for hitting Yuki Tsunoda on Lap Fifty-One, which saw the Japanese driver retire.
McLaren Team Principal Andreas Seidl was full of praise for Ricciardo, who was also awarded ‘Driver of the Day’.
“This was an intense Sunday for our team at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. After losing positions at the start, a great job from the drivers, excellent pitstops and brave strategy calls got us back into a competitive position, eventually finishing P7 and P9. Important points in our battle with Alpine for fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship.
“A special mention to Daniel – Driver of the Day – who had a very strong weekend after a tough time in Austin. He’s been more comfortable in the car from the first run here in Mexico, and put in a great final stint which, combined with an aggressive strategy, produced an impressive result.”
Seidl was also on hand to congratulate the team’s pit crew, who performed the fastest stop of the season so far during Ricciardo’s only stop, clocking a rapid 1.98 seconds.
“Also, another fantastic job by the pit crew to record the two fastest stops of the race, with our 1.98-second stop for Daniel being the fastest of any team so far this season.
“Thanks to the entire team – those here at the track, back at the factory and our colleagues at Mercedes HPP – for producing a reliable car for these unique conditions and managing a very complex race. We’ve got a short rest now and then we go again into the last double-header of 2022.”