It was another challenging weekend for the Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN team at the Qatar Grand Prix, after they finished the final triple-header of the season with Kimi Räikkönen finishing fourteenth with Antonio Giovinazzi in fifteenth at the Losail International Circuit.
After a disappointing qualifying for the team with both cars being eliminated in Qualifying One, Räikkönen and Giovinazzi both made excellent starts to the race making up four places each. The Finnish driver was twelfth after the opening lap with the Italian in fourteenth. From then on both drivers enjoyed battles in the lower midfield, whilst being sure to preserve their tyres. Four drivers saw their race hampered by a front-left puncture,thankfully neither Alfa Romeo driver suffered from one.
In the end fourteenth and fifteenth was the best the team could salvage, ahead of both Williams Racing cars and the Uralkali Haas F1 Team duo, as well as Valtteri Bottas who retired from the race.
Team Principal Frédéric Vasseur agreed that fourteenth and fifteenth was the maximum the team could salvage from the Qatar Grand Prix.
“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.”