Turkish Grand Prix – Alfa Romeo once again misses out on points
Once again starting from too far back, the Alfa Romeo team could only climb back (as often) to the doorstep of scoring points in Istanbul. The team misses another chance to catch up with Williams in the constructors' standings.
The races follow one another and are alike for the Hinwil team. After another painful qualifying session (Giovinazzi started 16th and Räikkönen 17th), the two drivers made, as usual, a very good start to position themselves not far from the points by the end of the first lap. A new double overtake, right at the end of the race, on a struggling Daniel Ricciardo allowed the home drivers to cross the finish line in 11th and 12th place, positions too often occupied by the Alfa team this season.
Antonio Giovinazzi, who signs his best result since the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, regrets not being able to take the 10th place from Esteban Ocon. “We were one lap away from being in the points and it’s really frustrating. We did our best but unfortunately it wasn’t enough.” The Italian prefers, nonetheless, to remember his good race pace, particularly towards the end of the race. “The race wasn’t bad, despite starting far back on the grid, we had a good pace. But yesterday’s qualifying made things more difficult.”
Kimi Räikkönen, who therefore finishes just behind his teammate, was very brief, on the microphone of the Sky Sports channel, to give his feedback on his Grand Prix. « Our race was not too bad but once again we didn’t get anything out of it. Our pace was decent but it wasn’t enough ».
Alfa Romeo was unable to continue its momentum from Sochi (Räikkönen had scored the four points for eighth place) in an attempt to close the sixteen-point gap separating it from Williams. The team has only five more Grand Prix ahead of it to try to reverse the trend against its English rival.
