Emotional Daniel Ricciardo heads toward likely F1 exit with a lap that could decide the title

Daniel Ricciardo was once tipped as a future Formula 1 champion. His last act in F1 might be playing spoiler in the title race.

The Australian's late rally at the Singapore GP on Sunday snatched the bonus point for fastest lap away from title challenger Lando Norris and helped out Max Verstappen. Ricciardo drives for RB, the sister team of Verstappen's Red Bull, and has previously been a teammate to both Norris and Verstappen.

“If Max wins by a point then I just guaranteed myself a nice Christmas present,” Ricciardo told British broadcaster Sky Sports. Verstappen thanked Ricciardo over the radio to Red Bull.

The lap put the visibly emotional Ricciardo — a popular figure in F1 — in the spotlight ahead of a widely expected decision to replace him with RB's reserve driver Liam Lawson. It generated controversy, too.

Ricciardo finished outside the top 10 so the point isn’t credited to him in the standings, and he finished further back — in 18th place — because he stopped for fresh tires before the lap.

McLaren chief executive Zak Brown objected.

“This once again illustrates that the issue of A/B teams and dual ownership in F1 needs to be addressed as it creates opportunities to manipulate outcomes," Brown told The Associated Press.

"It is precluded in the sporting regulations and we must make sure this type of incident doesn’t happen again in the future, as in Singapore only one team benefited and it wasn’t the team which set the fastest lap.”

RB's team principal Laurent Mekies said the team had simply wanted to give Ricciardo a race to remember.

"Given this may have been Daniel’s last race, we wanted to give him the chance to savor it and go out with the fastest lap," he said in a statement.

RB has yet to officially confirm Ricciardo is leaving, but the driver gave his clearest indication yet that this may have been his last race.

“A lot of emotions because I’m aware it could be it,” he said.

Ricciardo's F1 career looked like it might be over in 2022 when he was soundly beaten by Norris at McLaren. After a stint as a Red Bull reserve, he got another chance last year when RB, then branded AlphaTauri, fired the underperforming Nyck de Vries midseason. It hasn't really worked out, with only four top-10 finishes in 25 races.

“I always said I don’t want to come back just to be on the grid, I want to try and fight back in the front and get back with Red Bull, and obviously it didn’t come to fruition. So then I also have to ask myself the question, ‘Well, then what else can I achieve?’” Ricciardo told Sky Sports.

“Maybe the fairy-tale ending didn’t happen, but I also have to look back on 13 or so years, and I’m proud.”

Even more than for his eight wins, the last of them in 2021, the Australian was famed for his easy-going manner and sense of humor and became a standout face of the “Drive To Survive” Netflix series, which brought F1 to a new audience and sparked a boom in interest in the United States.

Ricciardo's voice was the first heard in the first episode from the 2018 season, which showed him relaxing with his family in Australia and talking of his dream of being a champion.

Ricciardo's fastest lap tipped the title race away from Norris in one very important way. If Verstappen is second in each of the remaining six Grand Prix races and three sprints, he will retain the championship by one point from Norris.

Ricciardo helped out a driver from what's officially a different team, but Norris isn't complaining.

“That’s how it’s been in Formula 1 probably since before I was born, so nothing to complain about,” he said. "It’s the logical thing to do, the smart play by them. Happy for Daniel, that’s all."

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AP Auto Racing Writer Jenna Fryer contributed to this report.

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

James Ellingworth, The Associated Press