Antonio Giovinazzi says he felt compelled to give it his all in qualifying at Zandvoort on Saturday to thank his Alfa Romeo crew for succeeding in turning his car around in Q2 after a wheel issue almost thwarted his efforts.
The Italian driver, who is fighting to hold on to his seat with Alfa Romeo for 2022, had performed steadily since the start of the weekend.
Giovinazzi's form extended into qualifying but in Q2, a recalcitrant wheel nut put his Q3 prospects in jeopardy.
The issue was similar to the problem encountered by Valtteri Bottas at Monaco earlier this year, and which took the Mercedes team the better part of 24 hours to solve!
But Alfa's crews got to work and managed to energetically hammer the wheel nut off which, along with the red flag deployed in the session, allowed for Giovinazzi's safe passage into Q3 and his charge to a remarkable P7.
©AlfaRomeo
"We showed already yesterday that we had great pace, to top-10," said the Italian.
"Then qualifying was, to be honest, a rollercoaster because at one moment in Q2 we had an issue on the wheel but then we had a little bit of luck with the red flag, and we were in Q3.
"In Q2 it was just a mega lap, the car felt great. So yeah, thank you to the guys for the car and also for the job they did to solve the issue during Q2.
"They didn't give up, they did everything and when I saw that the issue was okay, it was my priority to give a great lap to the guys for the job they did."
Giovinazzi believes that holding his own at the start and in the early stages of Sunday's will likely be key to achieving a good result at the end of the day.
"For sure the race is tomorrow, but from P7 I think we can do a great job," he added "The main target is to keep position, if we keep position it would be great."
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