Daniel Ricciardo said he expects a Christmas present for helping Max Verstappen in his championship fight in the Singapore Grand Prix.
The RB driver pitted to take a new set of soft tyres at the end of the race. That allowed him to set the fastest lap on the final tour, his 1’34.486 beating the previous best set by Lando Norris, a 1’34.925.
As Ricciardo was running 18th, setting the fastest lap made no different to his championship position. However it took one point away from Norris in his effort to catch Verstappen.
Although Ricciardo drives for RB and Verstappen for Red Bull, both teams share the same owner. Ricciardo’s radio messages indicated he did not ask to pit to make an attempt for the fastest lap.
Ricciardo is widely expected to lose his place at RB after this weekend. He admitted that was in his mind after setting the fastest lap.
“Part of me is – I don’t mean this against Lando – but part of me is hoping Max wins by one point, because I think I guaranteed myself a really nice Christmas present if so,” he told Sky.
“It’s just, I think obviously, yeah, it’s with a little bit of Red Bull in mind. But maybe just to have one last crack at doing a fast one, if it is to be it.”
Afterwards Red Bull team principal Christian Horner expressed his gratitude to Ricciardo for helping Verstappen.
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“Daniel, we know his capabilities,” Horner told the official F1 channel. “We know exactly what he’s done.
“He showed, again, with that final lap that he did that which obviously was valuable to us because obviously it takes the point off Lando.”
RB team principal Laurent Mekies claimed they arranged Ricciardo’s fastest lap bid because he may not drive for them again after this weekend. “Given this may have been Daniel’s last race, we wanted to give him the chance to savour it and go out with the fastest lap,” he said.
Selected Ricciardo radio messages from the end of the Singapore Grand Prix
Ricciardo’s discussion with his race engineer Pierre Hamelin over the final laps, as broadcast:
| Hamelin | Yuki 36.5 |
| Ricciardo | Is he in clear air? |
| Hamelin | Confirmed |
| Hamelin | Okay Daniel anything we can help you with to catch Russell’s DRS? |
| Ricciardo | Er no. Nothing really. Balance isn’t too bad just losing overall. |
| Hamelin | And Leclerc is 1.4. I’ll keep you posted. |
| Hamelin | Okay Daniel head down push on. |
| Hamelin | Daniel we are on diff exit two for fastest lap. |
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