Daniel Ricciardo drove like a man possessed at the Mexican Grand Prix today. He finished a brilliant P7 after the chequered flag was waved at the end of the race. However, this wasn’t an easy one for him with the 10-second penalty for a collision with Yuki Tsunoda. But McLaren wasn’t the only one inspired by this Honey Badger masterclass.

Red Bull and Max Verstappen have unsurprisingly done it again. With this victory under his belt, the 2x Champion now holds the record for the most wins in a season, surpassing both Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel. But he does have Daniel Ricciardo to thank for this.

After the race, Ricciardo was told exactly why. During F1’s post-race show Ricciardo was told, “I think Red Bull owes you a Beer at least!”

Ricciardo was then explained how his 45-lap stint on the mediums inspired the Bulls to pull off a one-stopper.

“I don’t think they thought it was possible until you did it. They started on the Softs and were assuming they were gonna do a two-stopper. When they put the Mediums on, you made it to lap 45, exactly how many laps that were gonna be left when Max pitted and made it work.” 

Ricciardo was quick to retort, “If I could take some bonus as well that would be good…things are tough.”

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As the Honey Badger lit Red Bull‘s race up, he had quite the afternoon himself. After being handed a 10-second penalty for his crash with Yuki Tsunoda, the Australian drove an inspired final third of the race to clinch P7.

Daniel Ricciardo shines at the 2022 Mexican GP despite “harsh” penalty for crash with Yuki Tsunoda

Ricciardo has had a nightmare year with McLaren this season. However, the Honey Badger isn’t the one to leave without a bang. This being his third last race with the team and possibly F1, he showed us exactly why we rate him so highly.

But his charge to P7 wasn’t an easy one. He made contact with Yuki Tsunoda in the late stages of the race. This was deemed worthy of a penalty by the stewards. However, as Martin Brundle would explain, the Australian just flew after that.

Brundle began by saying, “10 seconds is quite harsh.” Ricciardo overtook a swarm of cars and pushed hard to maintain a 10-second gap to 8th placed Esteban Ocon. This late charge didn’t go unnoticed by Brundle. “He’s absolutely fired up. Suddenly he lit up and off he went,” said the Brit about Ricciardo’s late charge.

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Daniel Ricciardo showed us today exactly what McLaren missed out on. But will another team grab him up to salvage his Formula 1 career?