Alfa Romeo Racing team principal Frédéric Vasseur has described the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps at the weekend as “a weekend to forget”, after Kimi Räikkönen finished in sixteenth place, with his team-mate, rookie driver Antonio Giovinazzi failing to finish.
Despite the poor weekend for the Swiss outfit, Vassuer said that the weekend was overshadowed by the tragic death of Formula 2 driver Anthonie Hubert in a feature race on Saturday, which also left 20-year-old Sauber junior driver Juan Manuel Correa in hospital with critical injuries.
“Racing today was never going to be easy given yesterday’s tragic circumstances. Anthoine was one of my drivers in F3 and the minute of silence we observed for him today was quite an emotional moment.
“My thoughts go out to his family, while at the same time I hope for a quick recovery for our Sauber Junior driver Juan Manuel,” said Vassuer.
He added that the race was not the team’s finest hour, owing to Räikkönen’s race being over before it had really begun, making contact with the Austrian Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen who was attempting to complete a pass, and Giovinazzi who suffered a collision on the last lap and had to retire.
As for the race, it was an afternoon to forget: Kimi’s race was over within a few hundred metres from the start, when he was hit by Max Verstappen in a very optimistic move, and Antonio missed out on some good points with an accident in the last lap.”
