Antonio Giovinazzi: “We will need to keep working hard to find that little extra performance”

Antonio Giovinazzi says it was a positive Friday for himself and for Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN, with the Italian placing inside the top ten in the afternoon session at the Red Bull Ring.

Giovinazzi sat out the morning session as Alfa Romeo gave Callum Ilott a chance behind the wheel of the C41-Ferrari, but despite this, he was able to have a competitive afternoon session to end tenth fastest.

The Italian says there is still work to be done by Alfa Romeo to fine tune and refine their package ahead of Saturday’s Qualifying session, where Giovinazzi will be aiming for a second appearance in Q3 of the season.

“It was quite a smooth FP2 for me, we finished the full programme we set out to do including some laps on the prototype tyres and some high-fuel runs,” said Giovinazzi.  “In general, it was a positive session.

“The midfield seems very close, as always, so we will need to keep working hard to find that little extra performance to be at the edge, especially on Saturday. We still have one session before qualifying to refine our package and then we’ll give our maximum in qualifying.”

“We won’t find out until tomorrow where everyone really is” – Kimi Räikkönen

Team-mate Kimi Räikkönen had a brilliant morning session in Austria as he ended sixth fastest, but he was unable to improve on his time in the afternoon and as a result dropped to fourteenth.

The veteran Finn says there is confidence that Alfa Romeo can have a competitive weekend at the Red Bull Ring, and even though he is expecting a close midfield battle, he says the team need to focus on getting the most out of their package on Saturday and Sunday.

“It was a fairly regular Friday,” said Räikkönen.  “Of course, everyone knows the track really well after last week so we won’t find out until tomorrow where everyone really is.

“I am quite confident, but we know the margins are so small that anything can happen. In the end, we will need to find something tonight because we know everyone else will and we have to make a bigger step ahead than the others.

“We just focus on ourselves and on doing our best and we’ll see what tomorrow brings.”

Kimi Räikkönen was sixth in the morning session – Credit: Florent Gooden / DPPI