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 the 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 tyres 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 said. “It is precluded in the sporting regulations and we must make sure this type of incident doesn’t happen again in the future.”

RB’s team principal Laurent Mekies said the team had 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 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” he said