Alpine, Hyperpole hopes shattered by red flag: “A slightly frustrating session”

It wasn't the dayAlpine in Italy. The French team was not able to achieve a time to get into the Top 10 and therefore, for the Hyperpole session. If the new French Hypercar still lacked a little rhythm, the A424 still being broken in on this Imola route, there was nevertheless hope with the gaps being tighter than expected.

However, the arrowed A found himself trapped by the red flag caused by Dries Vanthoor's spin two minutes from time, while the two mounts were in their flying lap. Result: a 17th place for the n°35 of Paul-Loup Chatin, and an 18th place for Nicolas lapierre aboard number 36. Two positions at the back of the grid, and a mixture of disappointment and frustration for the French clan.

Paul-Loup Chatin (Alpine n°35), 17th in qualifying at Imola : “A bit of a frustrating session. On my first attack lap, there is a car that comes out in front of me, which puts gravel on the track. I get surprised a bit, so I make a mistake on top, so I have to abort my first round. My second attempt would have been a good time that would have brought us closer to the Hyperpole. We really would have shown a better performance, but there is the red flag. And finally, after that, there was only one lap to try to get a time. That puts us a little further away, a little less well than we hoped. »

“We know today that there are some who are going faster than us, but we continue to work. We see that ultimately, it remains tight, places are expensive. Above all, we need to be able to use the car better on a qualifying lap. We focus a lot on the race in the same way as in Qatar. We must not forget the objective: qualifying is good, but the most important thing is the race. Afterwards, we know that on a circuit like that, position is also important, so of course we would have preferred to be a little closer. »

Nicolas Lapierre (Alpine n°36), 18th in qualifying at Imola : “A little disappointed, obviously. We thought we would be able to get closer to the Hyperpole. Unfortunately, we didn't have the speed to do it. The red flag didn't help us, like many teams, but it's true that we took a little time to warm up the tire and in the end, the red flag really came at the wrong time. Now we're going to come and think about what happened, why we were so far away. And try to correct that. Of course, it’s a bit of a disappointment not to have taken a step forward. »

“We know that in terms of race pace, we are better than that. Afterwards, what's a bit annoying here is that it's very hard to overtake. We are going to suffer from our starting position, that seems obvious. But afterward, I think it's a race, a lot will happen. There will be opportunities for us to seize. »

Comments collected by Dorian Grangier and Valentin Glo.

ALSO READ > Fuoco takes pole at the 6 Hours of Imola, Ferrari hat-trick at home