“Terribly unlucky” Giovinazzi hopes F1 fortunes turn around in Portugal

Antonio Giovinazzi is hopeful his run of back luck in F1 comes to an end at this weekend's Portuguese Grand Prix.

While it hasn’t yet scored points in 2021, Alfa Romeo has enjoyed a step forward in terms of performance.

Alfa Romeo has moved clear of Haas and Williams in the competitive order and was unfortunate to miss out on a top ten finish with both cars at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix last time out.

Giovinazzi was running ahead of teammate Kimi Raikkonen before being forced into an unscheduled pit stop after a visor tear-off got stuck in his brakes.

“I can’t wait to be back in the car for the races in Portugal and Spain,” Giovinazzi said. “I feel we definitely haven’t reaped what we deserved in the first two rounds: we have been terribly unlucky, especially in Imola where we would have been on course for ninth or tenth if it hadn’t been for a tear-off stuck in a brake.

“We need to take the positives of those performances and use them as a spur to go one better in the next races: we know we are in a very close fight and we know we can come home with some really good results if things go our way.”

Kimi Raikkonen finished the race at Imola in ninth but was later awarded a 30-second time penalty for not following the correct procedure under the Safety Car.

The 2007 world champion believes Alfa Romeo is currently “not miles off” the lead midfield teams.

“Two more races mean two more chances to have a good result – something we went really close to in the opening events of the season, Raikkonen added. “We are not miles off, we are right in the middle of this scrap and we can fight with anyone in the midfield if we do our job properly and we have a little luck, which we missed so far this season.

“Last year I had a fun first lap in Portugal, but it’s not going to be on my mind: in the end, it doesn’t really matter how you start a race, but where you finish it and we need to finish it in the top ten to achieve our objective.”