Alfa Romeo reacts to “Surprising” Qatar Grand Prix

Overtime Heroics Editorial

555 days ago

Alfa Romeo Racing finished the maiden Qatar Grand Prix in 14^th and 15^th positions under the floodlights. Kimi Räikkönen and Antonio Giovinazzi delivered solid performances from the back, executing two great starts and achieving the most possible on the night with the car under the lights.

Ferrari’s Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc (L) competes with Alfa Romeo’s Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen during the Qatari Formula One Grand Prix at the Losail International Circuit, on the outskirts of the capital city of Doha, on November 21, 2021. (Photo by ANDREJ ISAKOVIC / AFP) (Photo by ANDREJ ISAKOVIC/AFP via Getty Images)

By the time they reached the chequered flag, Kimi and Antonio were closing in on the rivals ahead, coming within sight of the McLaren of Ricciardo and Tsunoda’s AlphaTauri on the final lap and crossing the line just three seconds behind their opponents.

Team Principal: Frédéric Vasseur

“We had a better Sunday after a difficult weekend, on a track that has been quite tough for our cars. Our pace through practice, qualifying and the race was affected by some damage we picked up during the sessions, so to pull together a good recovery drive like tonight’s, leaving behind the Haas and the Williams, was a positive. Both drivers did really well at the start, produced some good overtakes and in the end we were able to close to within three seconds of Ricciardo and Tsunoda. P14 and P15 was the most we could achieve today and we did it. Now we have a week to regroup after this triple-header, time to prepare for the final two races of the season.”

Kimi Räikkönen

“I was surprised by the overtakes we could do, in the end it was an entertaining race. I didn’t expect much at the beginning, perhaps to be able to race with some people as the car was pretty much the same as yesterday, but we had a good start and then things kept improving as the race went on. I had some good battles and by the end we were catching the McLaren and AlphaTauri ahead. I think we got everything we could out of this race.”

Kimi Räikkönen

“We did the maximum we could, I don’t think anything more than P15 was possible today. We had a great first lap, gaining four places, and then we were in some nice battles for the rest of the evening. We struggled yesterday, but we knew with a good race we could finish ahead of both Haas and Williams – and that is what we delivered. We went for a two-stopper as we knew the degradation was high and the kerbs were hard, and at the end we were quicker than our rivals. Given where we started, we have to be satisfied with our race today.”

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Feature Image Credit Embed from Getty Images