Redemption Drive by Daniel Ricciardo as The Honey Badger Rode His Luck to Bounce Back From a Hefty Penalty

The race back at Mexico City was an eventful one. Especially, for the Honey Badger. McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo made a comeback with his performance at the Autodrómo Hermanos R0dríguez circuit. Daniel’s start position on the grid was P11 and he finished the race in a glorious way in P7.

Ricciardo even bagged the ‘Driver of the Day’ with his marvellous performance. However, the race didn’t seem quite promising for the Aussie as he initially dropped down to a position of P13, eventually running into Alpha Tauri’s Yuki Tsunoda. Nonetheless, all’s well that ends well, right?

Daniel Ricciardo made contact with the front of Yuki Tsunoda. He, however, managed to power through and continue on the track, whilst Yuki could not. This cost Daniel a ten second penalty for the race.

The Aussie however shared that he does not take the whole blame for the same. He is accountable, however it wasn’t his fault alone. He said, “I’ve seen a few replays, I’ll take more of the responsibility but certainly I don’t feel it’s 100 to zero in terms of my fault.”

The Honey Badger clarified that his intention was not to overtake. He states that he hadn’t locked the brakes and was still on the apex. He said, “I didn’t actually plan or want to overtake him there–I mean, of course, I’d love to overtake him–but I wasn’t into that corner to out-brake him and overtake him.”

Ricciardo’s game plan was to stay on all grips, inside of the turning corner, whilst keeping Yuki on the dirt line to get a better exit. He explained, “We probably needed to give each other 20, 30 more centimetres and we were fine. Probably not even that.”

“So I wish it didn’t happen and I’m sorry that it happened but I think 10 seconds was more than enough, and somehow we kind of still came through,” he said.

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Ricciardo also credited Mercedes’ boy, George Russell for his position and claims he will buy the chap a cold beer.

Daniel Ricciardo credits George Russell for his P7 finish

Although, with the way the events took place on the track, Ricciardo believes he has Mercedes’ George Russell to thank. He claims he will be buying Russell a beer to thank him for his P7 finish. Apparently, George played a big part in Ricciardo securing his note-worthy finish last weekend.

Daniel was given a 10 second penalty for his minor crash with Yuki, however, in the last few laps, Russell, running P4 moved in close enough to Ricciardo for him to fear a blue flag. If that were to happen, he’d have to make way for the Mercedes, which at this point was already a lap ahead of him. This could’ve cost the Aussie a position with finishing less than 10 seconds ahead of Esteban Ocon landing him in a final position of P8.

To his surprise, Russell chose to pit with two laps for new tires and Ricciardo held onto his speed, landing him in his P7 finish.

The Aussie said, “In the last few laps I was pretty nervous because George was so close to getting a blue flag for me and I knew I would lose a couple of seconds with that and that would have dropped me back into Ocon. So I was pushing like hell just to try and hold that two-second gap.”

“Then when I heard he pitted for fastest lap, I was like, he probably doesn’t think it or know it. But I’ll buy him a beer anyways!” said the Honey Badger, in conclusion.

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Daniel Ricciardo was pretty pleased with the way things worked out in Mexico and for good reason. The Haney Badger was seen visibly happy post the race.