Antonio Giovinazzi: “We were just one lap away from being in the points”

Antonio Giovinazzi believes that had the Turkish Grand Prix been one lap longer, he would have been able to pass Esteban Ocon and score the final point on offer.

The Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN driver made up positions on the opening lap at Intercity Istanbul Park and waited until lap forty to make his one and only pit stop for fresh intermediate tyres, but despite the advantage of the fresher rubber, he was too late to catch Alpine F1 Team’s Ocon for tenth.

Giovinazzi believes the race in Turkey was harder than it could have been had he qualified better on Saturday afternoon, but the Italian feels Alfa Romeo are showing good pace at this part of the year, something he hopes they will capitalise on in the United States Grand Prix later this month.

“We were just one lap away from being in the points, and this is really frustrating,” said Giovinazzi. “The race wasn’t bad, despite starting from the back as a result of yesterday’s qualifying, which made everything harder.

“We gave it our best but unfortunately it wasn’t enough – for the smallest margin, just one second. We had good pace in the last couple of races, so let’s focus on getting back in the points for the next race in Austin.”

“We went really close to the points but ran out of laps to make it” – Kimi Raikkonen

Team-mate Kimi Räikkönen also missed out on points in Turkey, with the Finn following Giovinazzi home in twelfth after both found their way ahead of McLaren F1 Team’s Daniel Ricciardo on the penultimate lap.

Like his team-mate, Räikkönen made a good start and made early gains, but when the track began to dry, overtaking became much more of a challenge and he was unable to break into the points.

“It was a good race, but in the end we didn’t get anything out of it,” said Räikkönen.  “The conditions were ok, very consistent throughout the race and we had some decent pace.

“Still, it was quite hard to get past anybody until the end, when some were really struggling with their tyres. We went really close to the points but ran out of laps to make it.”

Kimi Räikkönen missed out on points in Turkey – Credit: Xavi Bonilla / DPPI