Giovinazzi hails “mega” lap to secure seventh after wheelnut scare in Q2

2021 Dutch Grand Prix

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Antonio Giovinazzi said Alfa Romeo “deserved” their best starting position of the season after claiming seventh on the grid for the Dutch Grand Prix.

He described his qualifying session as a “rollercoaster” after a problem with a wheelnut almost ruined his session.

The Alfa Romeo driver will line up immediately behind the two Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jnr on the grid. But Giovinazzi says it had been a difficult session for the team after a stuck wheelnut threatened to halt his progression in Q2.

“We showed from the onset that that we were in top 10 in FP1, FP2. The car felt just great,” Giovinazzi said.

“To be honest, the qualifying was a little bit of a rollercoaster because at one moment we had an issue with a wheel in Q2. But then the guys, they didn’t give up so thanks to them.”

Once the problem was fixed, Giovinazzi was able to participate in Q3 for the second time this year.

“We went to Q3 and the car was okay – actually, it was great. The lap in Q3 was really mega. I just think we deserved this result.”

Giovinazzi admitted Alfa Romeo did not expect to have such strong single-lap pace around the Zandvoort circuit heading into the weekend.

“This year it’s really difficult to understand which track can be better for us,” said Giovinazzi. “I think it was just teamwork. The car felt good from Friday, when you can build great confidence in a track like this, it’s just better.”

Asked what the target was for the team heading into tomorrow’s race, Giovinazzi answered “keep the position”.

“We start from a good position, P7. I know that something can happen also in the front. So we’ll see but for sure the target is to keep the P7.”

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2021 Dutch Grand Prix

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2 comments on “Giovinazzi hails “mega” lap to secure seventh after wheelnut scare in Q2”

  1. Mature response from Gio, acknowledging that there are faster cars behind, but also saying that a certain pair can crash at the front, making it easier to keep p7.

  2. This weekend has made me wonder about Antonio Giovinazzi’s motivation in F1. We know he has a massive amount of natural talent by the fact that he narrowly missed out on the GP2 title to Pierre Gasly in his first season. But since joining Formula 1, he has been largely underwhelming, comfortably beaten by a past-his-best Kimi Raikkonen in 2019, and only gradually improving so that he is only slightly better than Raikkonen now. But this weekend, just as he is warned that his job has come under threat, Giovinazzi puts in the best qualifying lap of his life to take seventh on the grid. Last season, his results also picked up massively when his job appeared to be on the line. I wonder if Giovinazzi is maybe sees F1 as more of a hobby and is actually much quicker than he seems. He is content with putting in mediocre performances until it appears that he might lose his drive, and then he puts the effort in and shows what he is capable of. Could be reading way to much into this, but it seems like a possibility.

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