Antonio Giovinazzi says he was ‘mentally tired’ after 78 non-stop laps of the Monaco Grand Prix in which he secured Alfa Romeo’s first point of the season.
The Alfa Romeo driver secured the team’s first points since last year’s Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix by finishing in tenth, following Giovinazzi reaching Q3 for the first time this season during qualifying.“It was a great weekend,” says Giovinazzi. “Since FP1, the confidence was there in the car. Yesterday we put together a great lap to go through to Q3. Points, of course, are always good for the team – especially the first points of the year.
“I think we could’ve done a little bit better, maybe eighth or ninth was possible today. But still, really happy and good motivation for the team as well.”
After starting from ninth on the grid following Charles Leclerc’s failure to start the race, Giovinazzi admitted that the lack of any breaks in the action over the 78 laps of the race had been a challenge for him.
“I think it’s the first Monaco Grand Prix [for a while] without a Safety Car, so nobody made a mistake,” says Giovinazzi.
“It’s quite intense, 78 laps, trying to be always on the limit with a lot of fuel in the car, so it was not easy at all. I’m a little bit tired mentally, not physically, but scoring points of course is always nice and I’m really happy.”
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BasCB (@bascb)
23rd May 2021, 18:31
I think Giovinazzi can be rightly proud of his driving. He showed great pace in Qualifying to get into 3 and he was one of a few drivers who were pushing the car ahead of them for most of the race – ultimately it did not bring about any overtake, but the effort was there. Good job.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
23rd May 2021, 20:58
He did overtake Ocon at the start, but lost out when they pitted.
melanos
24th May 2021, 1:00
You sure of that? Giovinazzi started ahead of Ocon, so I’m not sure how could he overtake Ocon at the start.
Giovinazzi, like everybody else, won a position in lap 1 due to Leclerc’s DNF but his relative position to Ocon did not change
Michael
24th May 2021, 18:40
Ocon had a great start and was side by side with Perez in the first few corners but Giovanazzi got back ahead further round the lap (at the hairpin?).
Esploratore (@esploratore)
24th May 2021, 4:34
Indeed, was one of the few drivers who were like 6 tenths behind someone else for most race.
Dave
24th May 2021, 10:12
It was time to score points after being Hockenheim’d at Imola.