Changeable conditions usually provide opportunities for the teams towards the bottom of the constructors’ championship but none could take them in Turkey, providing a silver lining for Alfa Romeo who started race day with high hopes.
Saturday’s qualifying session saw Alfa Romeo excel, with Kimi Raikkonen securing eighth on the grid and Antonio Giovinazzi tenth as both cars made it through to Q3 for the first time this season. Any early optimism soon faded away in the race though, as Giovinazzi retired and Raikkonen struggled to a 15th-place finish.
“For sure it was far from fun but that’s how it was,” Raikkonen said. “I think it was more or less what we expected. Unfortunately we don’t have the speed, most of the time we struggled to make the tyres work and then they work for ten laps and then they are finished. Honestly that’s more or less what we expected. I think if it had been completely full wet then it would have been better for us but luckily the guys that we are racing against didn’t score any points so it’s OK.”
It could have been even worse though as Giovinazzi nearly didn’t make the start at all, crashing at Turn 2 on his way to the grid and having to wait for a number of minutes until the track was clear so a crane could recover him from the gravel.
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