Alpine Lost Win For Refusing to “Sacrifice” Either Car

Alpine sporting director Nicolas Lapierre admits that the French manufacturer lost victory in the 6 Hours of Fuji by not “sacrificing” one of its cars in the final pit stop that allowed Toyota to get the jump and ultimately take a surprise win.

The two Alpine A424s had looked to be in a dominant position for most of the distance in Sunday’s sixth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship season, until the fourth and final safety car period of the race with 58 minutes to go.

At the time, Victor Martins’s No. 36 car led Charles Milesi in the sister No. 35, but the two cars slipped to third and fifth for the final restart, with Martins in particular losing out as other marques, notably Toyota and BMW, short-filled their cars.

Martins recovered from fifth to second but fell just over half a second short of Ryo Hirakawa’s No. 8 Toyota TR010 in the final 20-minute dash to the flag.

Lapierre called it a “bittersweet feeling” on a day that Alpine’s two cars finished second and fourth, giving it its biggest-ever one-race points haul of 30.

“We put one car on the podium, we scored a record number of points in one race, but it’s always disappointing not to win when you have the cars at the front for most of the race,” remarked Lapierre post-race.

“The key factor was under the last safety car, we didn’t want to sacrifice a car, so we boxed both cars at the same time. We lost time and we got overtaken by a few cars.

“In the end we could have won the race and finished far with the other one, if we sacrificed it, but we decided to go with the team spirit and have both cars their at the end. It was my call, so I assume [responsibility for] it.”

Martins explained that the position of the two Alpines in the pit lane, with the No. 35 car’s box situated in front of the No. 36, was a key factor in why he was given two left-side tires for his final stop, while others elected not to change tires.

“We did tires because our sister car that was in front and we were not losing time because of the sister car, that you need to pull back and go again,” he said. “We didn’t lose time to do tires, it was an advantage, that’s why we did it.”

As well as not changing tires, Toyota’s decision to short-fill in anticipation of a long safety car period after the Turn 1 crash involving Finn Gehrsitz’s McLaren 720S GT3 Evo was also critical to its eventual victory.

Martins said of Toyota: “I think they did a good job. They gambled, it worked, they anticipated well. They were in a position to do so. They were at the end of the pit lane and they can see what everyone else is doing, and just release.

On the final battle against Hirakawa, the French driver added: “He did well. I wanted to overtake him, to win at the home of Toyota, but it’s nice to fight this like this. But he was ahead. I tried, but I didn’t have enough laps. One or two more laps, maybe…”

Despite the disappointment of losing out on victory, Martins was keen to take away the positives from a weekend that yielded his first podium as a WEC driver.

“I think we were dominant this weekend,” he said. “It’s the second weekend in a row where we are always at the front, fighting. We got pole [by default after qualifying was cancelled], but I think we would have been in the fight for pole anyway.

“The car is on rails. The guys are doing a super job. We are always improving. We miss [the win] for a bit, but sometimes racing is like this.

“We want to win for sure before the end of the season. Now it’s two races left, also some tracks that I know. I discovered Fuji on Friday [in practice] so it was a completely new experience for me.

“Barcelona I know, so I am 100 percent confident I can deliver 100 percent there. We have everything on the table to win before the end of the season.”