Giovinazzi hoping end to "bad luck" will start run of success

Antonio Giovinazzi believes his first points finish of the year could kick-start a run of success for Alfa Romeo after finally banishing the “bad luck” it endured in the opening races.

The Italian team was dubbed one of the most surprising in pre-season testing but the strong form it showed then did not materialise into race results until Giovinazzi claimed 10th place in Monaco.

Giovinazzi said: “It was good to be back in the points. P8 was maybe possible if we had put it all together but in the end, we need to be happy with the result. It is good motivation for the team.

“We showed our car has improved a lot. After a really difficult start to the season with the bad luck of our side, I hope this is the first race of a lot of good ones. We showed all weekend the pace was good.”

The team was slower than expected at the season-opening race in Bahrain and while Giovinazzi’s team-mate Kimi Raikkonen finished ninth at Imola he was demoted out of the points after he was handed a 30-second time penalty.

Things then went from bad to worse in Spain where Giovinazzi pitted, only for one of the crew to spot a tyre within the set was flat just before it was fitted, requiring a time-consuming change.

The Italian driver, who worked hard to finally get a point on the board in Monaco, added: “Monaco is mentally hard and to do 78 laps is really, really difficult, but I am happy with the result.

“From FP1 the confidence was there, we improved session after session, arrived in quail with a really great car and then in the race again.

"The pace was really good, we were in the first Q3, we were in the points, so looking forward to Baku.”

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