Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN had a challenging day in Istanbul as Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen qualified in P18 and P19 respectively for the 2021 Turkish Grand Prix. On a damp track after this morning's persistent rain, the Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN team couldn't turn their pace into positions and saw both drivers bow out of the session after Q1.

Both Antonio and Kimi will make up at least a place owing to penalties to other drivers, and will aim to make up ground in tomorrow's race.

Frederic Vasseur, Team Principal: "It's obviously disappointing not to turn what had started as a promising day into a good qualifying result. We had looked strong in the rain in FP3, but when it came to this afternoon, we weren't able to put together the laps we needed. We need to regroup and recapture the form we had earlier in the weekend ahead of tomorrow: it's a long race and the conditions are still an unknown, so we could have a good chance to make up ground and come home with a good result."

Kimi Raikkonen: "We were pretty good in the rain this morning, so it's a shame not to make it past Q1 today. We tried our best but we couldn't really put the laps together. When we finally got the right grip at the end of the session, we were stuck behind another car and that was it. A lot of small things went wrong today, so let's focus on tomorrow. Hopefully we will have some changeable conditions and a bit of chaos to help us make up places."

Antonio Giovinazzi: "We looked ok coming into qualifying, but we didn't put everything together when we had to. The conditions were difficult, some parts of the track were drying but others rather wet: in the end, it is what it is and we need to work to make it better for the race. It's only Saturday, we race tomorrow and we will give our best. Our race pace was not too bad: if we have a good first lap, we can have our say."

Check out our Saturday gallery from Istanbul, here.