Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN Formula One Team’s Kimi Raikkonen says thst despite starting tomorrow’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix towards the back of the field he is hoping for a strong end to his Formula One career.
“I was on a pretty good lap on my final run of Q1, the time looked good, but I got sideways in turn 13 and that was it. It’s a pity as the car felt nice. Tomorrow is another day, we start pretty far at the back but we will try to have as good a race as possible and bring home a good result.”
Antonio Giovinazzi starts his final race for Alfa Romeo from 14th place and speaking following the action he said:
“I think we achieved close to the maximum we could today: maybe P12 or P13 were possible, but Q3 was a step too far. I had a run on medium as I wanted to try them, but my final run on softs was spoiled by the traffic at the end of the outlap: my tyres and my brakes were too cold in sector one and we couldn’t improve. It’s been a bit like this all season with the traffic, but it is what it is. We can still have a good race from 14th, with a good first lap and a good strategy to see what we can achieve from there. I want to enjoy this final race of the season and have a good result to say goodbye to the team.”
Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN Team Principal Frédéric Vasseur said:
It’s very much a case of mixed feelings after today’s qualifying. Antonio probably achieved a result close to the maximum potential of the car, and broadly reflective of where we were throughout practice; Kimi, unfortunately, was setting a very fast time in his final run in Q1, probably the fifth or sixth fastest time, but all the advantage went in sector three. It’s disappointing as we could have had two cars solidly in Q2 on a day where there were very small margins. Still, we can take some comfort from a decent pace that should give us a fighting chance tomorrow. The objective remains the same, to finish the season on a high.”
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