Will Daniel Ricciardo's best race of 2022 earn him as seat on the grid next year? F1 SingaporeGP
The timing of the Safety Car allowed both McLaren drivers to stop and lose less time in the pit lane , rejoining in fourth and fifth, where they ultimately finished.Reflecting on the race, Ricciardo said: “I’m certainly in a position where I would honestly take it any way I could. Like I said, 50:50 today, I do feel like we earned a big chunk of it, but I’m not going to apologise for fortune, race situation, none of that because I feel like things haven’t always worked out for us this year.
Ricciardo admitted it was important not to make an “emotional decision” when deciding when to switch to the dry tyres. “It’s up there,” Ricciardo replied when asked if it was his best race of the year. “I feel it was a 33-year-old drive in terms of being at times… I didn’t have the pace as the track started to dry on the inter, I was starting to get a bit antsy like ‘Guys I’m not that quick right now, let’s put a slick on and see what it does’, but then it was OK that’s kind of an emotional decision so we kept the conversation going and I think that’s ultimately what put us in a top five position.
Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon retired through mechanical issues, allowing McLaren to move four points clear in the“It’s big, because obviously I’m aware the championship situation and the lack of points I’ve been able to get this year has certainly been pretty sad,” he explained. “So to contribute on a day when we certainly needed to with both Alpines retiring, that was big for us.