Daniel Ricciardo brilliant in Abu Dhabi – takes final Fastest Lap

Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo ended a fine season in style, piloting the final DHL Fastest Lap of 2014 on his way to 4th place in Abu Dhabi and 3rd overall.

VIDEO: Watch the video above to see cockpit footage of Ricciardo’s Fastest Lap and hear commentary by DHL’s F1 Expert and former F1 driver Christian Danner.

While Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton put on a perfect performance out front to take the checkered flag and claim the 2014 Formula One Drivers’ Championship, Daniel Ricciardo drove a brilliant race for Red Bull, surging from the pits to P4. The Australian had been disqualified from qualifying along with German teammate Sebastian Vettel on account of a front wing rule infringement, which forced the duo to the back of the pack. 

“It was an unbelievable drive from Daniel. He was quick throughout, with some great overtaking moves.” (Christian Horner, Red Bull Team Principal)

Despite the setback, Red Bull’s tire strategy paid off. After starting on the softs and driving longer first stints, Ricciardo was in P4 by Lap 16 with Vettel only three positions behind. For the rest of the race he fought with the fastest toward the front, only slipping briefly to P7 after his second pit stop. A look at the lap times shows that he was one of the quickest pilots on the track all day.

Fastest Lap
After running in the final podium position from lap 36 to 47 and some 20 laps on the softs in his second stint, Ricciardo pitted for super softs with only eight laps to go. His closest rival, Williams’ Valtteri Bottas, had pitted in lap 36 and Ricciardo need fresh tires if he had any chance of a champagne shower with Hamilton and teammate Felipe Massa, who had kept Hamilton honest the entire race. While Bottas slid into P3, Ricciardo came flying out of the pit lane to run lap 49 a full second faster than the Finn. 

In lap 50 he pushed even harder, closing the gap by nearly 2 seconds and racing the day’s Fastest Lap. He completed the 5.554-km Yas Marina Circuit in 1:44.496.

"It was a drive that epitomized his season – and the year ended exactly how he started it. (Christian Horner, Red Bull Team Principal)

A stellar season
Ricciardo finishes his first season for Red Bull in third place overall, which is quite a feat considering the dominance of the Silver Arrow duo in 2014. He was the only driver other than Hamilton and Rosberg to win races this year, topping the podium three times – first n Canada and then back to back in Hungary and Belgium.

“One spot better would have been nice, but fourth is really cool from the pit lane.” (Daniel Ricciardo)

“It’s been pretty much a perfect season, as perfect as it can be without holding a world title, so no real regrets, no complaints.”

2014 DHL Fastest Lap Award
The 2014 DHL Fastest Lap Award was decided in Brazil after Hamilton drove his 7th of the season, leaving Rosberg two behind with only one race to go. It was the Brit’s first in the eight-year history of the award. The now two-time Formula One World Champion showed us time and again that he was the man to beat in 2014. After grabbing his first Fastest Lap at the Malaysian Grand Prix back in March, he raced Fastest Laps at the British, German, Italian, Singapore, Japanese and Brazilian Grands Prix. 

Watch all the Fastest Laps this season here!

Follow the Motorsports stream on DHL InMotion!

Are you new to DHL InMotion?
DHL InMotion lets you follow all of DHL’s global partnerships from one platform. To find the content that interests you most, use the filters in the top right-hand corner to customize your view. Bookmark that URL and you’ll always return your personalized collection of content.