Antonio Giovinazzi: “We showed in the last few races we can be in the fight for points”

Antonio Giovinazzi was in a positive frame of mind after Fridays two practice sessions at the Circuit of the Americas, with the Italian hopeful he can carry the kind of performance he showed into Saturday’s running.

The Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN driver ended inside the top ten in both sessions on Friday, with Giovinazzi ninth in the morning and tenth in the afternoon.

Despite the bumpy nature of the track, Giovinazzi is aiming for a strong weekend in the United States as he continues to fight for his Formula 1 future beyond the end of the current season.

“It was a good day, with a positive FP1 and really good FP2 in terms of qualifying as well as race pace,” said Giovinazzi.  “I’m very happy about it, hopefully tomorrow we can also have a smooth qualifying with a similar level of performance.

“In general terms, it was a good start to our weekend. The bumps in the track are still there and some corners will be very tricky in terms of comfort with the car, but these are the conditions for everyone and we will do our best. 

“We never give up, we showed in the last few races we can be in the fight for points so that has to be our target.”

“We are satisfied with where we are at the moment” – Kimi Räikkönen

Team-mate Kimi Räikkönen was also confident after Friday’s running, with the Finn aiming to break into the top ten in Qualifying on Saturday afternoon.

Räikkönen, who took his final race win at the Circuit of the Americas back in 2018 with Scuderia Ferrari, was tenth fastest in the morning session on Friday, and although he slipped back to fourteenth in the afternoon, he feels satisfied that Alfa Romeo’s pace is relatively good this weekend.

“It’s been quite a straightforward Friday, no big issues so we could do our job,” said Räikkönen.  “We are satisfied with where we are at the moment, hopefully we can make some more progress tonight and be fast enough in qualifying.

“This is a track we all enjoy, it’s a bit bumpy and it’s always a challenge to put a lap together but that’s nothing to complain about. Let’s see what we can do tomorrow.”

Kimi Credit: Kimi Räikkönen is aiming for Q3 in Austin this weekend – Credit: Antonin Vincent / DPPI