If Alpine continues to have problems in Formula 1, and yesterday in Baku Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon were not even eligible for points, the factory team of the French concern Renault booked its first successes in the endurance races.
This past weekend, the penultimate, seventh stage of the WEC season took place in Japan and the Alpine Endurance Team crew of Mick Schumacher, Nicolas Lapierre and Mathieu Vaxivière took third place in the 6 Hours of Fuji. This is the team’s first podium in the endurance races in the Hypercar category, including Mick’s first podium in this championship.
It was he who drove the Alpine A424 car on the final stretch of the distance and shortly before the finish in the battle for 3rd place ahead of Norman Nato, a driver of the Jota team that raced with Porsche 963 hypercars. Until yesterday, Alpine racers on the WEC stages had not finished above fifth place, and the best performance of crew #36, including Mick, was only 9th place.
“There were quite a few really tough battles on the track and I’m driving more and more confidently and I already know how to fight in the WEC,” said the son of the seven-time world champion after the finish. “I didn’t expect it to be so difficult, although driving these quite heavy cars feels like you’re karting, just like in the old days.”
“I enjoyed it a lot because I haven’t been on the podium for a long time (the last time Mick did that was four years ago, at the end of September 2020 during the Formula 2 round in Sochi), but now I’m really happy!”
The Porsche Penske works team celebrated victory at the end of the race at the Japanese circuit: crew number 6, consisting of Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer and Laurent Vantour, completed the 6 Hours of Fuji distance fastest. Second place was taken by the BMW M Team WRT crew, represented by Driz Vantur, Raffaele Marcello and Marco Wittmann.
Yesterday’s victory allowed the No. 6 team to extend its lead in the World Championship, one stage before the season finale: the Bahrain 8-hour race on November 2.
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
