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Beginning on Thursday, the Signatech Alpine Matmut team and the entire field was welcomed to SpaFrancorchamps by extremely difficult and unpredictable weather.
Following a first session focused on setup, the no.36 Alpine A470 was caught out by the rain in the afternoon. The French squad still managed to gather a trove of information in the final session before André Negrão and Pierre Thiriet went on to qualifying fifth in LMP2.
The race began under threatening skies at 13:30 on Saturday. First in the car, André Negrão immediately picked up a place, but it began to rain at the end of lap two.
Very quickly, the conditions became hellish as light snow began to fall and the temperature dropped to 1°C. The Brazilian came in for Michelin rain tyres, then the team adapted its strategy thanks to a lightning pitstop at the end of the first safety car period.
Alpine’s rivals switched to slicks during a break in the weather as well as the second neutralization, and Andre Negrão emerged in the overall lead before handing over to Pierre Thiriet as the third hour began.
On a dry track surface, the French driver put in a solid doublestint by combining speed and consistency at halfdistance, but HoPin Tung managed to surprise him just before the storms returned.
Nicolas Lapierre took over to pour the pressure on the Chinese driver. While hail pelted Spa Francorchamps, the Platinum driver made his stop a lap earlier than his competitor to retake the lead.
The advantage that he quickly built was reduced to zero by another safety car intervention. Pastor Maldonado made the most of it as the race entered the final hour. Following another pause in the action, Nicolas Lapierre continued his triplestint being third with 15 minutes remaining while the two cars in front of him still had to stop.
The torrential conditions and sometimesprecarious visibility forced the race stewards to wave the red flag 11 minutes from the chequers. Despite an errorfree effort from the drivers on the track and the team with the strategy, the Alpine A470 had to settle for third place, which runs its series of consecutive podium finishes to seven and gains the upper hand from the championship rivals.
The final round of the reconquest will take place next month at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Further information in the press release to download
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