Alfa Romeo target more Q2s to end season on a high

Alfa Romeo is targeting more regular Q2 appearances at the remaining races to help them finish the season on a high after an improvement in qualifying at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

The team's head of trackside engineering Xevi Pujolar said a better understanding of the tyre performance has put the team on a recent run of better form and improved confidence in qualifying is leading to points-scoring race results.

"I think initially we were struggling with the qualifying," he said. "Then, we made a step. Even [Imola] was not the perfect example because we were hoping to be in Q2 and it didn’t happen."

The team still secured a double-points finish at Imola, the third time in five races they have had a car in the top-ten with Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen also only narrowly missing out on points in Russia and Portugal respectively.

The midfield is extremely competitive this season, however, with the gap in Q1 at Imola between Pierre Gasly in fourth and Giovinazzi in 20th just one second, and Pujolar acknowledged the next step forward would be difficult.

He added: "We’re making progress but it’s very tight in the midfield and everyone is just trying a lot to find every tenth of a second which is very critical."

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