Antonio Giovinazzi said that he was content with his Bahrain Grand Prix despite it being a challenging race for the Alfa Romeo Racing driver.
Giovinazzi missed out on a slot in Qualifying 2 by just 0.065 seconds to team-mate Kimi Räikkönen, leaving him to start sixteenth on the grid.
The Italian profited from a 24-lap long second stint on the medium tyres to run in the points in the midway stage of the 57-lap race, before falling to finish eleventh after his final pitstop.
He was also involved in a collision with the Scuderia Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat on lap 13, a coming together that left the Russian facing the wrong way.
However, Giovinazzi avoided a penalty after a stewards’ investigation mid-race.
Giovinazzi said that he had the chance to challenge Sergio Pérez for the final points-paying position taken away from him by a late Safety Car triggered by a double retirement for the Renault F1 Team.
“It was a good but challenging race,” said Giovinazzi.
“I could make some good advances and had a good pace at the end of the race, unfortunately I couldn’t challenge for tenth place because of the Safety Car.”
However, the Italian said that Alfa Romeo’s pace was encouraging, shown by seventh place for Räikkönen and that he and the team must move forward to the Chinese Grand Prix in two weeks’ time – the site of the final race in his deputy stint at the Sauber F1 Team for the injured Pascal Wehrlein in 2017.
“We were really close to the points and that is positive,” Giovinazzi added.
“Now I have to stay focused and keep working for the next race in Shanghai.”
