"I was kind of hoping the race would end on lap one"- Daniel Ricciardo discloses what stripped him of a podium at 2022 F1 Italian GP

F1 Grand Prix of The Netherlands - Previews
Daniel Ricciardo during previews ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of The Netherlands. (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images)

2021 Italian Grand Prix race-winner Daniel Ricciardo started the race in Monza on the second row in 2022. He had a great start to the race and later joked that he wished the race ended after the very first lap, in which case he would have finished on the podium.

Instead, towards the closing stages of the 53-lap race, the Aussie was forced to retire from the Italian Grand Prix thanks to reliability issues. This made for a strong contrast from his outing in Monza last year, where McLaren enjoyed a glorious 1-2 finish.

Speaking to Formula1.com after the race, Daniel Ricciardo explained what went wrong with his McLaren towards the end of the race:

“Car switched off. I don’t know the details, but in simple terms, just everything shut off. So I was in Lesmo 1, fourth gear, and then immediately [switched] off, and then obviously stuck in gear so I just tried to pull over to the inside of the track as quick as I could.”
“It was nice to start at the front, nice to be on the second row and I got a decent start. Obviously [I] was in third [place] and I was kind of hoping the race would end on lap one. Another podium would have been really good, but I didn’t have the pace.”

McLaren claim an "oil leak" caused Daniel Ricciardo's retirement at the Italian GP

McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl claimed that the likely cause of Daniel Ricciardo's DNF was an oil leak, although the team could not fully confirm.

Speaking to Speedcafe.com, Seidl confessed that it was an "unfortunate" result for Ricciardo, who deserved to score a few points in the race:

“Daniel commented on the radio that he lost the engine and it looks like that we had an oil leak, but what exactly the root cause of the oil leak (is, is) something we need to analyse once the car is back."
"It is obviously very unfortunate for Daniel, for us, that after a strong weekend on his side of the garage, the strong race today, that ultimately we couldn’t score the points that he deserves this weekend.”

Daniel Ricciardo currently stands 14th in the drivers' standings with 19 points to his name.

Also Checkout:- F1 Standing 2022

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Edited by Nicolaas Ackermann