Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN will be pondering over what could have been at the Portuguese Grand Prix. It was the worst possible start for the team with veteran Kimi Räikkönen colliding with teammate Antonio Giovinazzi at the end of the first lap.
The incident brought an early end to Räikkönen’s race, which brought out the races only safety car. It was a very disappointing end to the Finnish driver’s Grand Prix, at a track where the Alfa Romeo’s have looked more competitive. The veteran will be hoping that a repeat of the incident doesn’t happen this weekend in Barcelona!
“You never want to have contact with your team-mate, and this time unfortunately it was my mistake. I got caught out by the slipstream and ended up driving into Antonio. I couldn’t do much after that, the front wing got stuck under the car and I couldn’t steer: all I could do was go straight into the gravel.” Said Raikkonen.
“It’s a disappointment as we looked like we had decent pace, I made a really good start and the race could have been positive. The only upside was that at least Antonio didn’t get any damage and was able to continue.”
“We will continue working hard” – Giovinazzi
For Italian Giovinazzi it was such an unfortunate incident, one which he was not at fault for. The collision ended any chances of a points finish which after starting the race in twelfth, was a real possibility for the driver.
Thankfully the collision caused no damage to his car and he was able to bring the Alfa Romeo home in twelfth, as the team continues it’s search for points.
” I feel we got all we could from the race today: it wasn’t possible to get any closer than this to the top ten. After the contact with Kimi, from which thankfully I didn’t get damage, and the Safety Car, nothing really happened in the front which made it really difficult to break into the points: I started 12th and finished there.”
“I still had a fun race, some battles with Alonso and Vettel which kept me busy: I was happy to be able to pass Seb and keep both Aston Martins behind until the race. We will continue working hard to get into the points soon.“
