Alpine took no risks to win the title

Signatech-Alpine celebrated at the end of the 6 Hours of Shanghai its Drivers and Teams titles obtained in LMP2, obtained after two coronations won in ELMS. Victorious four times this year (Spa-Francorchamps, Le Mans, Nürburgring and Austin), the A460 n°36 of Nicolas lapierre, Stéphane Richelmi and Gustavo Menezes only needed a 4th place to reach the goal, one event before the end of the season.

Si Alpine would have liked to celebrate its title by getting on the podium, 4th place is already a satisfactory result for the French team which suffered from significant degradation on the abrasive Shanghai track.

“During free practice we noticed significant wear on the tires. We therefore competed in qualifying with one driver on hard tires and the other on mediums. This option forced us to reuse hard tires in racing, due to the quotas imposed by the regulations”, explained Philippe Sinault, Team Principal of Signatech-Alpine.

“At the end of the race, we found performance again as we were in contention for third place with the #36. However, fourth position was enough for us to win the title. It’s a bit frustrating not to get on the podium, but we achieved our goal with this third title in four years.”, added Philippe Sinault.

The struggle betweenAlpine n°36 and the Ligier JS P2 of RGR Sport by Morand got worse when Bruno Senna came into contact with the A460.

“Bruno Senna came to apologize after his little mistake, these things happen and there is no problem between us, assured Gustavo Menezes. I'm having the best season of my career! We would have liked to do better today, but we have to look broader. We won the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the LMP2 championship! Personally, I am also very proud to have won in Austin. The team did a fantastic job again this time. Our tire strategy was not ideal, but it was what we had to do to achieve our goal. »

Discover the analysis of the 6 Hours of Shanghai carried out by our special correspondents in issue 2088 of AUTOhebdo, available from Monday evening in digital version on all platforms, and from Wednesday on newsstands.