The Italian produced an eye-catching perfꦇormance at Zandvoort ✤as he progressed into Q3 for only the second time this season and went on to secure his best-ever qualifying performance with a stunning lap for P7.

Not only did Giovinazzi beat both Alpines and McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo, he came within a tenth of out-qualifying the Ferraris as he ended up 0.705s away from Max Verstappen’s pole efforꦜt.

Giovinazzi, who is out of contract at the end of the year, f🅠aces an uncertain future at Alfa Romeo but hopes his starring display in qualifying will help him secure his seat for a fourth season.

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“For sure it will help but we know how it is Formula 1, I did my best,” Giovinazzi said. “The race is tomorrow, but we did the right way.💞 It’s been like this from 2019 – September for me is quite busy.

“But I say many times if I do my job I will♔ keep my seat and this is🌄 what I did in the last two years.”

But Giovinazzi nearly didn’t🎉 make it out for the final session after a wheelnut problem in the pits at the🀅 end of his Q2 run almost derailed his qualifying altogether.

“The qualifying was a little bit of a rollercoaster because at one moment we had a little bit of an issue with a wheel[nut] in Q2 but the guys didn’t give up,” he explained. “So thanks to them becaus༺e we went to Q3 and the car felt great.

“The lap was mega and I think we 💖deserved this𓃲 result and we start in a good position for tomorrow.”

Seventh on the grid ma🌳rks Alfa Romeo’s best result of the year so far and equals Giovinazzi’s own career best starting position from Austria 2019.

And♈ with drivers expecting overtaking around Zandvoort’s tight and twisty to be extremely difficult, Giovinazz⭕i is determined to hold onto his place in Sunday’s grand prix.

“[The aim is] keep the position,” Giovinazzi said. “We star🌺t from a good position in P7, I know something can happen in the front so we’ll see, but for sure the target is to keep P7.

“This year is really difficult to understand wh🦄at track can be better for us. Yesterday from FP1 it felt the car is here and we had a good pace, and when it is like this it helps build up confiden✱ce with the track and the car and you can put it together in quali.”