A productive start to the weekend for Alpine in Las Vegas

It is with a surprise double podium in Brazil thatAlpine showed up in Las Vegas for this penultimate meeting of the 2024 season of Formula 1. All dressed in pink, the machines with the arrowed A completed 105 laps during the first two Free Practice sessions in the streets of the City of Vice.

Pierre Gasly climbed into the top ten each time, with a ninth place in FP1 and a sixth in FP2. It's great to be back in Las Vegas on this truly unique Formula 1 circuit, said the driver of the No. 10. As expected, the track conditions were initially difficult, with low grip and lots of sliding. I quickly felt pretty good behind the wheel and we looked competitive from Free Practice 1. We finished FP2 in sixth place, so we are in the game and we know our targets – Haas and Racing Bulls – are also in the mix. We need to keep working hard tonight as our long stint with a lot of fuel on board was more complicated with the graining. The field is extremely tight and a tenth of a second can make a huge difference. We remain optimistic, but qualifying is one thing and the race is another, so we need to sort out some aspects if we want to get a good result. »

Esteban Ocon, meanwhile, took 12th and 14th places. I was thrilled to be back on the Las Vegas track and driving under the lights of the Strip, expresses the recent second of the Grand Prix of São Paulo. It was a productive day and we have plenty to debrief tonight. As expected, tyre degradation and grip were key elements of today’s sessions. We will focus on these issues as they will play an important role in the race, and we can try to take advantage of them as we did last year. We need to find more performance before qualifying and I am looking forward to Free Practice 3 to implement some improvements. It won’t be an easy weekend, but we will work together to maximise everything we can and aim for a positive result. »

Meet at 3:30 a.m. on Friday night for Free Practice 3 of the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

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