Antonio Giovinazzi says if Alfa Romeo can extract a bit more performance from its car on Sunday, he could be set to enjoy a “mega” home race at Monza.<\/p>\n
Giovinazzi is fighting to retain his seat with Alfa Romeo for 2022 amid rumors that the Swiss outfit is considering several alternatives to the Italian.<\/p>\n
But the 27-year-old is keeping his head, and after qualifying P10 on Friday – his second Q3 in a row – he put in a strong performance in Saturday’s sprint race which he concluded P8 after fending off in the short event the Red Bull of Sergio Perez.<\/p>\n
However, Giovinazzi will line up seventh on the Italian Grand Prix grid following sprint race winner Valtteri Bottas’ demotion to the back following Mercedes’ decision to add a new power unit to the Finn’s pool of hardware.<\/p>\n
“It was again a positive day,” said the Italian. “We saw already this morning [in FP2] that the race pace was there.<\/p>\n
“I focused on the start, gained a position there and gained a position to Perez and after that, it was just keeping the position.<\/p>\n
“It was not easy in the end of the race to keep Perez behind, but really happy. Tomorrow we start P7 and let\u2019s see what we can do from there.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Looking ahead at his race prospects, Giovinazzi noted the strong straight-line speed of his C41 that could help his performance in Sunday’s race.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019m pretty happy actually with the speed on the straight.” he said. “In Monza, it\u2019s important so for sure we have pace.<\/p>\n
“So tomorrow, if we take another step it will be mega.”<\/p>\n
Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers<\/p>\n
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