Kimi Räikkönen admitted it was not the easiest Fridays for himself and his Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN team in Portugal, with the Finn struggling with the low grip and strong winds around the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve.
Räikkönen was only fifteenth fastest in the morning session on Friday morning and sixteenth in the afternoon, with the veteran Finn acknowledging Alfa Romeo have plenty of work to do in order to be a contender for Q2 on Saturday and points on Sunday in Portimão.
“It was not the easiest of Fridays and we have some work to do before we are where we want to be for qualifying,” said Räikkönen. “The track was quite green and the wind, especially in the second session, made it difficult to find proper reference points.
“We tried some things to improve the balance of the car in FP2, hopefully that gave us enough data to make a step forward overnight. We’ll see if it’s enough tomorrow.”
“Our aim remains the same – to get to Q2 and play it from there” – Antonio Giovinazzi
Team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi missed the first practice session as Alfa Romeo gave Callum Ilott a run in his C41-Ferrari, and the Italian admitted it was a difficult afternoon for him in Portugal.
Giovinazzi took to the track when it was at its worst, with warmer temperatures and strong winds making for difficult conditions. He completed thirty-two laps and finished seventeenth fastest, but he hopes to be in the fight to make it into Q2 during Saturday’s Qualifying session.
“Jumping in the car for the first time in the difficult conditions we had in FP2 is always hard: the wind gave a very inconsistent feeling, especially when the car is light, but we still have one night to look at the data and find something to improve,” said Giovinazzi.
“We’ll see tomorrow where we stand in qualifying, our aim remains the same – to get to Q2 and play it from there – and we know we can make the step forward needed.”
