Prost: contrasting beginnings

Alain Prost knew that with a freshly developed car, he would have to battle against the competition during the first events of the Andros Trophy. But ?the Professor? certainly did not expect to encounter so many difficulties on his first day of competition. However, everything looked good. Even the snow, rare during the preparatory tests a fortnight ago, was there to provide an ideal playing field.

After successful tests, Alain Prost was able to take his Dacia Duster to third place in the first qualifying round. Consistent throughout the four laps of the Val Thorens circuit, the Dacia driver pushed regularity to its peak by achieving the same time, to the nearest thousandth, during his laps 3 and 4. Adding up the four laps, the quadruple world champion of F1 was only ahead of Jean-Baptiste Dubourg (Renault Clio III) and Jean-Philippe Dayraut (Skoda Fabia).

During the second qualifying round, Prost started on the same basis, setting the best time in the field in his first lap. But the Dacia driver then missed out on his second lap, being excluded from the fight for victory in the two qualifying rounds. “ I'm obviously disappointed, because I was having a very good race which could have resulted in a place on the podium and maybe even a victory, Alain proclaimed. The car was quite lively in this part of the circuit, it went off the line in soft snow and I spun. »

Fifth overall in the two qualifying rounds and qualified on the second row of the second Elite Sup final, Alain Prost still had every chance of doing well. But, shortly after the start, contact with Franck Lagorce (Renault Clio III) sent him into a wall of snow. To top off the maneuver, the Dacia Duster was violently hit by Grégoire Demoustier (Skoda Fabia), who could not avoid his illustrious elder. As a result, Alain Prost only scored a few points, ranking eighth in the general classification at the end of this first day.

This Sunday, the quadruple F1 world champion will try to make up for it with the second day of competition scheduled in Val Thorens. Until then, its mechanics will have to repair the Dacia Duster, damaged during this Saturday's final.